Wang et al. (2025) Multivariate RVA Assessment of Hydrological Alterations: Huangshui River, Xining

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

Identification

• Journal: Hydrology
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-26
• Authors: Wen‐Xiong Wang, Hao Wang, Feng Wang, Xiaohui Lei, Xiaoyan Wei, Kang Li
• DOI: 10.3390/hydrology12120313

Research Groups

Not specified in the provided text.

Short Summary

This paper proposes a Comprehensive Degree (CD) index, integrating the Range of Variability Approach (RVA) with four additional statistical dimensions, to enhance the assessment of hydrologic alteration. Applying it to the Huangshui River, the study found a significantly higher degree of alteration compared to conventional RVA, improving diagnostic precision and ecological interpretability.

Objective

• To propose and apply a Comprehensive Degree (CD) index that integrates the Range of Variability Approach (RVA) with central tendency, dispersion, distributional shape, and trend to improve the assessment of hydrologic alteration.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Xining station on the Huangshui River, a climatically sensitive, topographically complex plateau basin.
• Temporal Scale: Daily discharge data from 1954 to 2022.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA), Range of Variability Approach (RVA), Comprehensive Degree (CD) index (integrating RVA with central tendency, dispersion, distributional shape, and trend).
• Data sources: Daily discharge observations.

Main Results

• Conventional RVA indicated an overall hydrologic alteration of 61.16% (moderate).
• The proposed CD index increased the overall alteration by 7.59% to 68.75%, reclassifying the regime as high alteration.
• Out of 32 indicators, 15 showed larger alteration with the CD index (12 moved up one class), while 17 decreased (2 moved down).
• Distributional shape and trend were the dominant factors, highlighting strongly altered ecohydrological indicators such as low-pulse frequency/duration and 3-day minimum flows.
• The CD index also flagged indicators downplayed by RVA (e.g., April–August monthly flows) due to high trend and distributional shape shifts.

Contributions

• Addresses the frequency-only blind spots of the conventional Range of Variability Approach (RVA).
• Provides a more robust assessment of hydrologic alteration, less susceptible to short-term or episodic fluctuations.
• Improves diagnostic precision and ecological interpretability of hydrologic alteration assessments.
• Offers a decision-ready basis for adaptive environmental flow management in sensitive plateau basins.

Funding

Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Wang2025Multivariate,
  author = {Wang, Wen‐Xiong and Wang, Hao and Wang, Feng and Lei, Xiaohui and Wei, Xiaoyan and Li, Kang},
  title = {Multivariate RVA Assessment of Hydrological Alterations: Huangshui River, Xining},
  journal = {Hydrology},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3390/hydrology12120313},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology12120313}
}