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Hydrological Response to Climate Change in Arid Land

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Ecology and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2023) | Viewed by 10401

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Dongwei Liu

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Guest Editor

School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China
Interests: climate change; hydroclimate modeling; response of water resources to climate change

Dr. Entao Yu

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Guest Editor

Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Interests: climate change; interaction between the atmosphere and hydrology; long-term future water resource projection

Dr. Qian Xia

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Guest Editor

School of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Interests: hydrological-meteorological model development and simulation; long-term water cycling changes to climate change and human activities

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Most of the watersheds in arid areas are inland river basins, with almost no surface runoff inflow, and flatland runoff is mainly caused by temporary water flow from heavy rainfall, while runoff in mountainous areas is mainly product of precipitation and ice and snow melt water. In special geographical and climatic environments, such as arid regions, water resources are a decisive factor in the maintenance of ecological security, food security and sustainable development. The ecological environment in arid areas is fragile and sensitive to climate change. Furthermore, long-term global warming is particularly pronounced in these areas, leading to frequent occurrences of extreme weather and climate events. Along with the increase in extreme weather and climate events, the frequency of severe hydrological events in arid regions is also rising. These issues have brought about new challenges in arid areas. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the interaction between climate and water can help us resolve these problems.

The response of the hydrological cycle to climate change and the corresponding impact on regional water resources constitute some of the most important research topics in the study of global change and regional response. These challenges have important academic significance and practical value: understanding the temporal and spatial evolution of the water cycle in specific basins, investigating the impact of climate change on water resources and security and ensuring the sustainable development of social economy and ecological environment are thus matters demanding urgent attention.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome for this Special Issue. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Climatic and hydrological change in arid regions;
Climate and hydrological modeling;
Future climate change projection;
Hydrological response to climate change;
Long-term future water resource projection;
Short-term flood prediction;
Impact of water balance in arid basins and feedback of extreme climate on hydrological processes;
Interaction between the atmospheric and hydrological processes;
Hydrological effects of land use and land cover change;
Regional water balance changes in response to climate change;
Extreme events in arid regions.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Dongwei Liu
Dr. Entao Yu
Dr. Qian Xia
Guest Editors

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Keywords

climate change
hydrological process
climate–hydrological coupling
flood forecast

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 3041 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Calibration and Evaluation of the WRF-Hydro Model in Simulating the Streamflow over the Arid Regions of Northwest China: A Case Study in Kaidu River Basin

by Entao Yu, Xiaoyan Liu, Jiawei Li and Hui Tao

Sustainability 2023, 15(7), 6175; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15076175 - 03 Apr 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2161

Abstract

In this study, the hydrological system of the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-Hydro) is applied to simulate the streamflow at the Kaidu River Basin, which is vital to the ecological system in the lower reaches of the Tarim River in Northwest China. The offline WRF-Hydro model is coupled with the Noah multi-parameterization land surface model (Noah-MP) and is forced by the China Meteorological Forcing Dataset (CMFD), with the grid spacing of the hydrological routing modules being 250 m. A 3-year period (1983–1985) is used for calibration and a 17-year period (1986–2002) for the evaluation. Several key parameters of WRF-Hydro and four Noah-MP parameterization options are calibrated, and the performance of WRF-Hydro with the optimized model setting is evaluated using the daily streamflow observations. The results indicate that WRF-Hydro can reproduce the observed streamflow reasonably, with underestimation of the streamflow peaks. The simulated streamflow is sensitive to the parameters of bexp, dksat, smcmax, REFKDT, slope, OVROUGHRTAC and mann in the Kaidu River Basin. At the same time, the parameterization options of Noah-MP also have a large influence on the streamflow simulation. The WRF-Hydro model with optimized model settings can achieve correlation coefficient (CC) and Nash efficiency coefficient (NSE) statistical scores of 0.78 and 0.61, respectively, for the calibration period. Meanwhile, for the evaluation period, the scores are 0.7 and 0.50, respectively. This study indicates the importance of applying the physical-based WRF-Hydro model over Northwest China and provides a reference for the nearby regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Response to Climate Change in Arid Land)

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16 pages, 9232 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial and Temporal Variability of Precipitation Complexity in Northeast Brazil

by Antonio Samuel Alves da Silva, Ikaro Daniel de Carvalho Barreto, Moacyr Cunha-Filho, Rômulo Simões Cezar Menezes, Borko Stosic and Tatijana Stosic

Sustainability 2022, 14(20), 13467; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142013467 - 19 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1371

Abstract

In this work, we analyze the regularity of monthly rainfall temporal series during the period 1953 to 2012, recorded at 133 gauging stations in the state of Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil. We use sample entropy method (SampEn), which is suitable for short and noisy data and recently attracted the attention of hydrologists as promising for rainfall studies. By comparing the SampEn values of the analyzed series, we find that for both the original and deseasonalized series entropy increases (regularity decreases) in the west–east direction from the inland Sertão region towards the coastal Zona da Mata. SampEn values for the semiarid Sertão region are significantly different from the humid coastal Zona da Mata and subhumid transition Agreste regions. By comparing two 30 year subperiods (1953–1982 and 1983–2012), we found that in the second period, the rainfall amount decreases in Sertão and Agreste, and increases in Zona de Mata, and that the Agreste and Zona da Mata regions become more similar in respect to the regularity of rainfall dynamics. In the second subperiod, the rainfall regime changes the most in Zona da Mata (both original and anomalies series show a significant difference in SampEn values). By analyzing time dependent SampEn, we identified several periods of increasing entropy, which are related to specific climatic phenomena such as subsequent El Niño and La Niña episodes. This work represents a contribution to establishing the use of information theory-based methods in climatological studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Response to Climate Change in Arid Land)

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17 pages, 4950 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Assessing Changes in the Landscape Pattern of Wetlands and Its Impact on the Value of Wetland Ecosystem Services in the Yellow River Basin, Inner Mongolia

by Jing Yun, Huamin Liu, Zhichao Xu, Xiaoai Cao, Linqian Ma, Lu Wen, Yi Zhuo and Lixin Wang

Sustainability 2022, 14(10), 6328; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14106328 - 23 May 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1907

Abstract

The Yellow River Basin of Inner Mongolia has significant ecological advantages, and it is critical to research the landscape pattern of its watershed wetland ecosystem and the changes in its service value in order to protect the environment and develop the region in a high-quality manner. In this paper, we use the landscape index method, the equivalent factor method, and a field survey to investigate changes in wetland landscape patterns and the dynamics of wetland ecosystem service values in the Yellow River Basin of Inner Mongolia from 1990 to 2020, and then examine the impact of landscape pattern evolution on wetland ecosystem service values in the region. The study’s findings indicate that rivers, lakes, and herbaceous marshes are the most common types of wetland landscapes in Inner Mongolia’s Yellow River Basin. The landscape types in the research area are diverse, and landscape fragmentation is increasing. In the Yellow River Basin of Inner Mongolia, the overall value of wetland ecosystem benefits is negatively connected with Patch Density and the Shannon Diversity Index, and positively correlated with the Contagion Index. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Response to Climate Change in Arid Land)

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23 pages, 4295 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Regional Ecological Security Pattern Construction Based on Ecological Barriers: A Case Study of the Bohai Bay Terrestrial Ecosystem

by Jinxin Zhang, Yunmeng Cao, Fanshu Ding, Jing Wu and I-Shin Chang

Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5384; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14095384 - 29 Apr 2022

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2397

Abstract

The construction of ecological barriers and ecological security patterns is an important way of maintaining regional ecological security in landscape ecology. However, there is still no consensus on the concept and connotation of ecological barriers, and the zoning and adaptive management of ecological sources are rarely considered in the construction of ecological security patterns. This study uses the terrestrial ecosystem of Bohai Bay, China as a study area, and the identification and zoning of ecological sources in the ecological security pattern are achieved by combining an ecosystem service assessment with an ecological risk assessment, and on this basis, ecological barriers are identified to optimize the structure and function of ecological sources. The minimum cumulative resistance model is used to identify ecological corridors and ecological strategic nodes and to construct an ecological security pattern based on the modified ecological sources. The results demonstrate that firstly, 2873.25 km² was identified as the ecological source, accounting for 14.28% of the total. Secondly, there are three large ecological barrier zones and nine ecological barrier cells with a total area of 1173.06 km², accounting for 40.83% of the ecological sources. Thirdly, a total of 35 ecological corridors were extracted, and 32 ecological strategic nodes were marked, mainly distributed at the intersection and branches of important ecological corridors. An ecological security pattern construction system was formed with the collection of ecological source selection, ecological barrier identification, ecological resistance surface construction, and ecological corridor extraction. Fourthly, the concept and connotation of ecological barriers was analyzed, and the complementary relationship between ecological barriers and ecological security patterns in terms of structure and function is discussed. This study enriches the definition and connotation of ecological barriers, provides a new framework for identifying the ecological security patterns, and provides scientific guidance for ecological protection and management in coastal areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Response to Climate Change in Arid Land)

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Review

Jump to: Research

16 pages, 1004 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Review on the Development of Two-Way Coupled Atmospheric-Hydrological Models

by Qian Xia, Yangzhen Fan, Hairong Zhang, Cong Jiang, Yafei Wang, Xiaojun Hua and Dongwei Liu

Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 2803; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15032803 - 03 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1541

Abstract

The past two decades have seen an intensive development in two-way coupled atmospheric and hydrological models, providing new opportunities to thoroughly understand hydrology–atmosphere coupling and improve hydrometeorological forecasting, which has not been possible before. This paper summarizes recent developments in hydrological presentation in land surface models (LSMs) and climate models, and the two-way coupling of atmospheric and hydrological models. The fully coupled models have been widely applied in identifying the impact of lateral surface and subsurface water transport in a land–atmosphere coupled system, and hydrometeorological simulations using techniques such as parameter calibration, data assimilation, and hydrology model structure revision have been used to improve the model accuracy. However, their applications still face major challenges, e.g., the complexity of hydrological parameter calibration, the lack of understanding of the physical mechanisms at high resolution, the parameterization of anthropogenic activities, and the limitations in simulation domain and period. Despite these difficulties, fully coupled atmospheric and hydrological models will gradually evolve into powerful tools to reproduce regional water cycles, offering significant potential for scientifically investigating water resources security issues affected by both climate change and human activities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Response to Climate Change in Arid Land)

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