Assessment of Ecological Flow in Hulan River Basin Utilizing SWAT Model and Diverse Hydrological Approaches

Geng-Wei Liu, Chang-Lei Dai (), Ze-Xuan Shao, Rui-Han Xiao () and Hong-Cong Guo
Additional contact information
Geng-Wei Liu: School of Hydraulic and Electric Power, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
Chang-Lei Dai: School of Hydraulic and Electric Power, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
Ze-Xuan Shao: School of Hydraulic and Electric Power, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
Rui-Han Xiao: School of Hydraulic and Electric Power, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
Hong-Cong Guo: School of Hydraulic and Electric Power, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 6, 1-26

Abstract: Human activities have significantly altered the hydrological processes of rivers. In recent years, the increased focus on global water resource exploitation and land use changes has heightened the significance of related ecological and environmental issues. To investigate the land use changes in Hulan River Basin between 1980 and 2020, and the corresponding flow under various ecological standards, a quantitative assessment of land use changes in Hulan River Basin was conducted by analyzing the Land Use Dynamic Degree (LUD) index and the land use change matrix. Two types of models, namely natural runoff models and status quo runoff models, were developed to evaluate alterations in basin runoff. Various hydrological techniques were utilized to calculate the ecological water deficit in Hulan River Basin. The results suggest the following: (1) human consumption comprises approximately 40% of surface water resources, with Hulan River Basin exhibiting a moderate consumption level; (2) when determining the minimum ecological flow, the Distribution Flow Method (DFM) method yielded slightly higher outcomes compared to alternative methodologies; both the variable Q 90 method and DFM (Q 2 ) method satisfy 10% of the natural river flow, however, in terms of capturing the hydrological pattern, DFM exhibits a slightly lower fitting degree compared to the variable Q 90 (monthly average flow with 90% guarantee rate) method; (3) DFM is identified as scientifically reasonable for determining the most suitable ecological flow in comparison to other hydrological methods; (4) despite the widespread water scarcity in Hulan River Basin, the variance between most periods and the ideal ecological flow remains minimal, indicating that severe water shortages are uncommon.

Keywords: Soil and Water Assessment Tool; hydrological model; runoff simulation; Hulan River Basin; ecological flow (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/6/2513/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/6/2513/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:6:p:2513-:d:1359152

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().