Peng et al. (2026) Simulation and Multi-Time Scale Attribution Analysis of Actual Evapotranspiration in the Source Region of the Yangtze River, China

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Identification

• Journal: Water
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-14
• Authors: Jianbiao Peng, Zijie Gu, Changmin Zhao, Jingyang Ji, Jiaming Wang
• DOI: 10.3390/w18182290

Research Groups

• Institute of Hydrology and Water Resources, Sichuan University
• State Key Laboratory of Eco-hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region, Xi'an University of Technology

Short Summary

This study investigates the contributions of climate change and human activities to water resources in the Yangtze River Basin by analyzing actual evapotranspiration (AET) across multiple temporal scales. The results indicate that human activities play a dominant role in driving trends in AET.

Objective

• Investigate the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to AET variation in the Yangtze River Basin

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Source region of the Yangtze River, China
• Temporal Scale: Monthly and seasonal scales for 1982–2019

Methodology and Data

• Models used: ABCD hydrological model
• Data sources: Runoff data from Zhimenda Hydrological Station (1982–2019), precipitation patterns

Main Results

• The change point in runoff series was detected in 2008.
• AET showed increasing trends in January, February, July, September, November, and December at the monthly scale.
• No statistically significant changes were observed in AET at either seasonal or monthly intra-annual scales.
• Intra-annual distribution of AET was highly consistent with precipitation patterns.

Contributions

This study provides new insights into the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to water resources in the Yangtze River Basin, highlighting the dominant role of human activities in driving trends in AET.

Funding

• National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51879222)
• Sichuan Provincial Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2020YJ0087)

Citation

@article{Peng2026Simulation,
  author = {Peng, Jianbiao and Gu, Zijie and Zhao, Changmin and Ji, Jingyang and Wang, Jiaming},
  title = {Simulation and Multi-Time Scale Attribution Analysis of Actual Evapotranspiration in the Source Region of the Yangtze River, China},
  journal = {Water},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.3390/w18182290},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/w18182290}
}