Zhao et al. (2025) Quantifying the Hydrological Impact of Ecological and Water Conservation Projects Within a Major Tributary Basin of the Middle Reaches of the Yellow River, China

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Hydrological Processes
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-01
• Authors: Yuhan Zhao, Hui Yang, Bo Guo, Chunyu Zhu, Jiansheng Cao
• DOI: 10.1002/hyp.70343

Research Groups

Not specified in the abstract.

Short Summary

This study quantified the basin-scale hydrological impacts of Returning Agricultural Land to Forest (RAF) and Returning Agricultural Land to River (RAR) projects in the Qin River Basin using the SWAT model, revealing distinct and spatially varied effects on runoff components, emphasizing the importance of slope conditions for effective water management.

Objective

• To quantify the basin-scale hydrological impacts of Returning Agricultural Land to Forest (RAF) and Returning Agricultural Land to River (RAR) projects on hydrological processes in the Qin River Basin.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Qin River Basin (QRB), a major tributary in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, China.
• Temporal Scale: 2010 to 2018.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model.
• Data sources: Not explicitly stated in the abstract.

Main Results

• The SWAT model demonstrated robust performance with Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficients (NSE) of 0.70 to 0.72, determination coefficients (R²) of 0.71 to 0.79, and percent bias (PBIAS) below 11%.
• Returning Agricultural Land to Forest (RAF) projects:
  • Reduced total basin runoff by 3.00%.
  • Increased surface runoff by up to 3.89%.
  • Decreased lateral flow by 11.46%.
  • Significantly increased groundwater flow by 2366.67%.
  • Spatially, surface runoff increases concentrated in the northern basin and eastern tributaries, while lateral flow reductions were most severe in central regions.
• Returning Agricultural Land to River (RAR) projects:
  • Hydrological responses scaled positively with agricultural-to-waterbody conversion area.
  • Showed 2.5-fold greater efficacy on slopes under 15° compared to those under 6°.
  • Basin-wide runoff components increased proportionally to buffer width expansion.
  • Spatial tradeoffs emerged: upper reaches exhibited surface runoff reduction from 1.29% to 21.74%, while lower reaches experienced groundwater depletion from 1.99% to 36.96% decrease.

Contributions

• Provided quantitative insights into the basin-scale hydrological impacts of specific anthropogenic land-use change projects (RAF and RAR).
• Highlighted the critical role of spatial planning, particularly considering slope conditions, for effective water resource management in semi-humid basins undergoing intensive human intervention.

Funding

Not specified in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Zhao2025Quantifying,
  author = {Zhao, Yuhan and Yang, Hui and Guo, Bo and Zhu, Chunyu and Cao, Jiansheng},
  title = {Quantifying the Hydrological Impact of Ecological and Water Conservation Projects Within a Major Tributary Basin of the Middle Reaches of the Yellow River, China},
  journal = {Hydrological Processes},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1002/hyp.70343},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.70343}
}