A Practical Approach for Environmental Flow Calculation to Support Ecosystem Management in Wujiang River, China

Xiaokuan Ni, Zengchuan Dong (), Wei Xie, Shujun Wu, Mufeng Chen, Hongyi Yao and Wenhao Jia
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Xiaokuan Ni: College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210024, China
Zengchuan Dong: College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210024, China
Wei Xie: Department of Hydropower and Water Conservancy Engineering, POWERCHINA Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited, Hangzhou 311122, China
Shujun Wu: College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210024, China
Mufeng Chen: Department of Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis and Management, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, 39104 Magdeburg, Germany
Hongyi Yao: Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Wenhao Jia: Pearl River Water Resources Research Institute, Guangzhou 510611, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-18

Abstract: To promote ecosystem protection in the Wujiang River, this paper proposes a practical approach for calculating the environmental flow. The proposed approach combines the idea of the “guarantee rate” of the flow duration curve (FDC) method and the grading idea of the Tennant method. A daily flow series of the Wujiang River was compiled from 1956 to 2019 and used to compare the effect of the proposed approach versus the traditional approaches in four selected sections along the river. The results show that the environmental flow of the Wujiang River can be divided into five levels by the T-FDC method, with a level-by-level disparity, and all levels can capture the temporal and spatial variability of river flow. Additionally, the calculated basic environmental flow process ranges between the historical minimum and second minimum monthly average flow, and the threshold width of the optimal flow is more reasonable than the Tennant method. The T-FDC method can provide technical support for Wujiang River ecosystem management and sustainable development.

Keywords: environmental flow; hierarchical target; tennant method; flow duration curve; Wujiang River Basin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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