YRiS Yellow River Studies - News Letter Vol.5 - Hydrological simulation and water resource management

Aug 27, 2026

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YRiS Yellow River Studies News Letter Vol.5 presents hydrological modeling and basin water-resource research for Yellow River catchments. It introduces a hydrological model system that incorporates land-use effects and agricultural irrigation, then applies it to the Tangnaihai and Lushi watersheds. Results show close agreement between simulated and observed monthly discharge and annual runoff, including small runoff errors and credible seasonal variation. The issue also describes related international research activities within the Global Water System Project framework.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Hydrological simulation in Tangnaihai and Lushi watersheds

Introduction

Model construct

Results

Conclusions

Water Resource Management in the Fen River Basin (II)

International research activities (Global Water System Project)

================================================================================ YRiS Yellow River Studies News Letter Vol.5 November 1, 2005 I. Hydrological simulation in Tangnaihai and Lushi watersheds…………………….2 II. Water Resource Management in the Fen River Basin (II)………………………….6 III. International research activities (Global Water System Project) ……………....11 Hydrological simulation in Tangnaihai and Lushi watersheds Xieyao Maa, Yoshihiro Fukushimab, Tetsuzo Yasunaria,c, Yoshinobu Satob, Masayuki Matsuokab, Xianfeng Wud and Hongxing Zhenge a Frontier Research Center for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 3173-25 Showamachi, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama 236-0001, Japan b Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, 335 Takashima-cho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-0878, Japan c Hydrospheric Atmospheric Research Center, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan d Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China e Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 1. Introduction Hydrological process of the Yellow River is very complex because it is affected by human activities very much. In order to understand the water circulation of the Yellow River basin and to examine some processes related to runoff formation change of the basin, a numerical model is necessary. In this issue, we will introduce a hydrological model system, in which some regional characteristics, like various land use and agricultural irrigation are considered, and report the result of the model application to the different scale watersheds ofthe basin, Tangnaihai and Lushi. 2. Model construct A one-dimensional model (Figure 1) is set up based on Ma et al. (2000) . The model is composed of three components: one-dimensional SVAT model, runoff formation model, and river routing model. The land use over the basin was lumped into five-group based on Matsuoka et al. (2005) dataset, namely, 1) Barren and urban, 2) Grass and shrub, 3) Forest, 4) Irrigated field and 5) Water. A brief summary of each component of the model is presented as follows: SVAT model The SVAT model is a simple biosphere model, in which the land surface includes a big-leaf and asoil layer. Using daily meteorological data, the model provides estimates of latent and sensible heat fluxes between the land surface and the atmosphere, and thermal regimes in the snow-cover and soil layer. Parameters related to land use were determined according to the feature of vegetation. The irrigation period is designed from the climate and the kinds of farm product. Runoff model A conceptual model HYCY (Fukushima, 1988) is used to determine the formation of runoff for a regional scale watershed. There is a reservoir system representing each of the four runoff components, which are saturated land surface runoff, infiltration runoff from the topsoil zone, base runoff and direct runoff from the water surface. River routing model To estimate river flow from upper stream to downstream, a lineal model is used. The velocity of river flow is set as a constant. The model was applied to the Tangnaihai watershed (120,000 km2 in area, over 3,000 m in a.s.l.), a source area of the basin from 1980-2001, and Lushi watershed (4,600 km2 in area, 900-2,000 m ina.s.l.), a source area of Luohe, a tributary river in midstream in the period 1980-2000 (see Figure 2) . As model input, 117 meteorological station data was used. Figure 1 Hydrological model system. Figure 2 Location of two watersheds. 3. Results Figure 3 shows the monthly hydrograph at Tangnaihai gauge. The simulated discharge is in agreement with observed one very well through 18-year. Annual runoff error between simulation and observation is shown in Figure 4. It is 1.8 mm in average and about 1% of the annual runoff average. Figure 3 Monthly discharge at Tangnaihai gauge from 1980 to 2001. Figure 4 Annual runoff and its error b

FAQs

What modeling approach is used for hydrological simulation in this issue?

A one-dimensional hydrological model system is used, composed of an SVAT model, a runoff formation model, and a river routing model.

How well do simulations match observations for Tangnaihai and Lushi?

Simulated discharge matches observed values very well, with annual runoff errors of about 1% for Tangnaihai and about 1.5% for Lushi on average.

What future work is proposed after validating the model?

A hydrological simulation of the whole Yellow River basin is planned using the same model system to study water-cycle change.

Aug 27, 2026

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