Impacts of climate change on water resources in the Huaihe River Basin

Abstract

The Huaihe river basin, located in the transitional area of the humid zone to the semi arid zone, is a subtropical monsoon zone. By analysis of historical observation data, the annual average surface temperature increased by 0.5℃ over the past 50 years. However, the precipitation showed a fluctuation trend. Based on the hydrological and meteorological data of Huaihe River Basin, this paper studies impacts of climate change on water resources in Huaihe basin by using the Xinanjiang monthly hydrological model in conjunction with prediction products of NCAR climate model. The results show that the precipitation in the basin had a fluctuating upward trend under RCP8.5 and RCP4.5 scenarios, and the increase or decrease trend of precipitation in RCP2.6 scenario is not significant. The model predicted that the temperature of the river basin in the 3 scenarios shows significant rising trend from year 2001 to 2100. However, the annual runoff of the Huaihe River Basin shows an increasing trend but not significant from year 2001 to 2100.