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Quantifying changes and drivers of runoff in the Kaidu River Basin associated with plausible climate scenarios

Zhao, Bingqian ; Sun, Huaiwei ; Yan, Dong ; Wei, Guanghui ; Tuo, Ye and Zhang, Wenxin LU orcid (2021) In Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies 38.
Abstract

Study region: The Kaidu River Basin (KRB) is located on the central southern slope of the Tianshan Mountain in Northwest China. Study focus: This work aimed to assess changes and main drivers of snowmelt-driven runoff in KRB associated with three future climate scenarios. Six versions of the “Cemaneige” snowmelt module embedded in the hydrological model “GR4J” were calibrated and evaluated. The bias-corrected climate datasets from CMIP5 Models were used to drive the optimal snowmelt-hydrological model for runoff prediction. The factors that lead to runoff variations were also assessed. New hydrological insights: The significant declining trends of runoff were only predicted in the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. The declining trends of... (More)

Study region: The Kaidu River Basin (KRB) is located on the central southern slope of the Tianshan Mountain in Northwest China. Study focus: This work aimed to assess changes and main drivers of snowmelt-driven runoff in KRB associated with three future climate scenarios. Six versions of the “Cemaneige” snowmelt module embedded in the hydrological model “GR4J” were calibrated and evaluated. The bias-corrected climate datasets from CMIP5 Models were used to drive the optimal snowmelt-hydrological model for runoff prediction. The factors that lead to runoff variations were also assessed. New hydrological insights: The significant declining trends of runoff were only predicted in the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. The declining trends of runoff were found in all the seasons. For the annual and summer runoff, compared to the historical period, both the RCP2.6 and RCP 4.5 periods showed a decline in the mid-century and a rise in the end-century; however, RCP8.5 showed a continuous decline during this period. Precipitation and evapotranspiration were ranked as the two most important factors regulating future runoff variations in all RCPs. In contrast, snowmelt timing is the second factor in the historical period, and its importance decreases in the warmer RCP scenarios. These results highlighted that the importance of snowmelt and snowmelt timing to the future runoff depends on the runoff responses to the trajectory of future changes in temperature and precipitation.

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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
China, Hydrological modeling, ISIMIP2b, Snowmelt timing, Tarim River Basin
in
Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies
volume
38
article number
100968
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85119159821
ISSN
2214-5818
DOI
10.1016/j.ejrh.2021.100968
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Funding Information: The authors thank the financial support of the Ministry of Science and Technology ( 2019FY00205 ), the NSFC-STINT ( 52011530128 ), and NSFC ( 51879110 , and 52079055 ). We also thank Prof. Jingfeng Wang at the Georgia Institute of Technology for his valuable comments on the methodology and thank Prof. Jianzhong Zhou and Lu Chen at Huazhong University of Science and Technology for their constructive suggestions on the manuscript preparation. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors
id
8484fde8-9b84-4b90-8923-d7a2bf0fef5a
date added to LUP
2021-12-03 11:16:22
date last changed
2023-02-21 11:36:07
@article{8484fde8-9b84-4b90-8923-d7a2bf0fef5a,
  abstract     = {{<p>Study region: The Kaidu River Basin (KRB) is located on the central southern slope of the Tianshan Mountain in Northwest China. Study focus: This work aimed to assess changes and main drivers of snowmelt-driven runoff in KRB associated with three future climate scenarios. Six versions of the “Cemaneige” snowmelt module embedded in the hydrological model “GR4J” were calibrated and evaluated. The bias-corrected climate datasets from CMIP5 Models were used to drive the optimal snowmelt-hydrological model for runoff prediction. The factors that lead to runoff variations were also assessed. New hydrological insights: The significant declining trends of runoff were only predicted in the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. The declining trends of runoff were found in all the seasons. For the annual and summer runoff, compared to the historical period, both the RCP2.6 and RCP 4.5 periods showed a decline in the mid-century and a rise in the end-century; however, RCP8.5 showed a continuous decline during this period. Precipitation and evapotranspiration were ranked as the two most important factors regulating future runoff variations in all RCPs. In contrast, snowmelt timing is the second factor in the historical period, and its importance decreases in the warmer RCP scenarios. These results highlighted that the importance of snowmelt and snowmelt timing to the future runoff depends on the runoff responses to the trajectory of future changes in temperature and precipitation.</p>}},
  author       = {{Zhao, Bingqian and Sun, Huaiwei and Yan, Dong and Wei, Guanghui and Tuo, Ye and Zhang, Wenxin}},
  issn         = {{2214-5818}},
  keywords     = {{China; Hydrological modeling; ISIMIP2b; Snowmelt timing; Tarim River Basin}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies}},
  title        = {{Quantifying changes and drivers of runoff in the Kaidu River Basin associated with plausible climate scenarios}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2021.100968}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.ejrh.2021.100968}},
  volume       = {{38}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}