Quantify Runoff Reduction in the Zhang River Due to Water Diversion for Irrigation

Abstract

In order to systematically analyze the impacts of climate change and human activities on runoff, this paper takes the Zhanghe River Basin, which is greatly affected by human activities, as the research object, constructs an attribution analysis model of runoff changes based on historical data and the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model. The results show that the runoff of the watershed has significantly decreased in the past 60 years, in which the contribution rate of climate change is 36.2% and that of human activities is 63.8%. Among the climate change factors, precipitation is the main contributing factor and canal diversion is the main contributing factor among human activities. In addition, with the decrease in precipitation during the flood season and the increase in the crop planting area in the catchment, the distribution of canal water diversion has also changed, and the water consumption of summer crops has gradually become the main factor affecting canal water diversion.

Keywords

• climate change
• human activities
• water resources
• canal diversion