Changes in hourly precipitation may explain the sharp reduction of discharge in the middle reach of the Yellow River after 2000

doi:10.1007/s11783-013-0563-7

Front Envir Sci Eng

0, Vol.

Issue () : 756-768 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-013-0563-7

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Changes in hourly precipitation may explain the sharp reduction of discharge in the middle reach of the Yellow River after 2000

Lin LUO, Zhongjing WANG(

)

State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

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Abstract

The Hekou-Longmen reach, together with local floods, is the main source area for coarse sedimentations into the Yellow River. When total rainfall slightly increased in the area, discharge dramatically decreased by 40%–70% after the year of 2000, and attracting extensive attention in the context of global climate change. High temporal resolution precipitation (timescales between 1 and 4 h) data from the June to September period from 270 rain gauges over the past three decades was mined in order to help explain the phenomenon. Each rainfall event was classified as light/moderate rain, large rain, heavy rain or rainstorm by the event’s rainfall amount, and further classified as low intensity rain, medium intensity rain and high intensity rain by the event’s rainfall intensity. The Mann-Kendall trend test was applied to detect the presence and significance of monotonic trends, and to find the change points in the mean and variance of the precipitation characteristics series, including the amount, intensity, frequency and duration of each rainfall category. Results show that although the total amount of precipitation has slightly increased, the average rainfall intensity has significantly decreased. The larger change happened in light/moderate rain events and low/medium intensity rain events, and the intensity changes have a great extent occurred around the threshold of Non-Runoff Rainfall regime, which was proposed for the approximate calculation of initial losses. Changes in rainfall distribution between different classes of the Runoff Rainfall regime in the 2000s could lead to 0.9 mm less runoff depth (17.3% of the total reduction) than the 1980–1999 period. The study indicates that changes in hourly precipitation may be responsible for the sharp reduction of discharge.

Keywords precipitation intensity Mann-Kendall rank statistic spatial and temporal distribution climatic change

Corresponding Author(s): WANG Zhongjing,Email:zj.wang@tsinghua.edu.cn

Issue Date: 01 October 2013

Cite this article:

Lin LUO,Zhongjing WANG. Changes in hourly precipitation may explain the sharp reduction of discharge in the middle reach of the Yellow River after 2000[J]. Front Envir Sci Eng, 0, (): 756-768.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-013-0563-7
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y0/V/I/756

Fig.1 Location of the study area and distribution of precipitation stations

Fig.2 Mean monthly precipitation (by data from 1980 to 2009)

Fig.3 The regional temperature changes (a) annual mean temperature and (b) change year detected by MK

Fig.4 Precipitation data quality before the year 1980 (a) and validation after the year 1980 (b)

Fig.5 Spatial distribution of average rainfall (a) amount and (b) intensity in JJAS over 30 years

Fig.6 Trends and change year of rainfall amount and intensity during JJAS: (a) series of annual precipitation amount ; (b) change year of detected by MK; (c) series of average precipitation intensity ; (d) change year of detected by MK

Fig.7 Probability Distribution Function of daily (a) and hourly (b) precipitation

Fig.8 Trends and changes in precipitation amount (a) and intensity (b) during JJAS
(The larger and smaller “×” means the significant and non-significant decrease of precipitation amount/intensity at each station, the larger and smaller “+” means significant and non-significant increase, “o” means no trend.)

Fig.9 Changes in average precipitation intensity for each category of rainfall event

Fig.10 Changes in rainfall intensity of classified rainfall event (tested in MK): (a) 0-20 mm (marked decrease); (b) 20-50 mm (slight decrease); (c) 50-100 mm (decrease); (d)>100 mm (scattered)

Fig.11 Average precipitation contribution for each rainfall duration: (a) 0-20 mm; (b) 20-50 mm; (c) 50-100 mm; (d)>100 mm

Tab.1 Changes of multi-aspect characteristics of precipitation

Fig.12 Location of the selected sub-catchments

Fig.13 Relationship between maximum initial abstraction (a), annual runoff depth (b) and average precipitation intensity

Fig.14 Changes of NRR and RR contributed by each amount/intensity of precipitation: (a) precipitation amount contribution of NRR; (b) precipitation intensity contribution of NRR; (c) precipitation amount contribution of RR; (d) precipitation intensity contribution of RR

Fig.15 Average annual amount of NRR and RR in different decades

Tab.2 Changes of relation between Runoff Rainfall (RR) and discharge

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