Quantitative Determination of Some Parameters in the Tennant Method and Its Application to Sustainability: A Case Study of the Yarkand River, Xinjiang, China

Aihong Fu, Yi Wang and Zhaoxia Ye
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Aihong Fu: State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Yi Wang: State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Zhaoxia Ye: State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: Analysis of basic eco-environmental water requirements (BEEWRs) along inland rivers characterized by extreme aridity can provide a theoretical basis for sustaining riverine ecosystems stressed by increasingly dry conditions and human activity. In the past, analyzing the ecological base flow as determined by the Tennant method was the predominant method used to calculate the BEEWR of a river. However, some parameter values within this method are determined subjectively, increasing uncertainty in the estimated values. In this paper, quantitative methods for these subjectively determined parameters are proposed and used to analyze the BEEWR of the Yarkand River, Xinjiang, China. The results demonstrate that: (1) the flood and non-flood seasons of a river can be delineated by analyzing the increase rate of monthly runoff as compared to the monthly runoff of the previous month; (2) the ecological base flow standard in the Tennant method can be more quantitatively determined by comparing the BEEWR for each ecological base flow standard to the annual average river loss, where the BEEWR must exceed the annual average river loss; and (3) BEEWRs of other up- and downstream river reaches can be obtained using the formula “BEEWR in the next downstream section equals the BEEWR in the last section minus the river loss between these two sections”.

Keywords: basic eco-environmental water requirement; ecological base flow standard; flood and non-flood seasons; the Tennant method; inland rivers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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