Detecting Water Diversion Fingerprints in the Danjiangkou Reservoir from Satellite Gravimetry and Altimetry Data.

Nengfang Chao,Gang Chen,Zhengtao Wang,Zhicai Luo,Fupeng Li,Xiaoli Su

doi:10.3390/s19163510

Abstract

The Danjiangkou Reservoir (DJKR) is the freshwater source for the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China, and its water level and storage changes are important for water resource management. To maximize the potential capacity of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, an improved Lagrange multiplier method (ILMM) is first proposed to detect terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) in the small-scale basin (DJKR). Moreover, for the first time, water diversion fingerprints are proposed to analyze the spatiotemporal pattern of the TWSA in the DJKR. The results indicate that the increased water level and storage signals due to the DJKR impoundment in 2014 can be effectively detected by using the ILMM, and they agree well with the results from altimetry and in situ data. Additionally, the water diversion fingerprints due to the DJKR impoundment are inferred, and describe the progression of spatiotemporal variability in water storage. The results show that water storage decreased in the upper Hanjiang River and increased in the DJKR as well as to the east of it during the period 2013–2015. Our research provides a scientific decision-making basis for monitoring the water resources of the DJKR and managing the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

Highlights

Surface water that is stored in lakes, reservoirs, and rivers plays a large role in agricultural irrigation, aquaculture, hydroelectric power, disaster prevention and mitigation, human life, and industrial activities [1]
The natural variability is mainly from climate-derived precipitation and evapotranspiration changes, which result in seasonal changes in surface area and water level
The Scale factor method (SFM) depends on the hydrological model and the smoothing method, but the DV method (DVM) is independent of the hydrological model and only depends on the optimal average kernel

Summary

Introduction

Surface water that is stored in lakes, reservoirs, and rivers plays a large role in agricultural irrigation, aquaculture, hydroelectric power, disaster prevention and mitigation, human life, and industrial activities [1]. Surface water resources are unevenly distributed in China, with abundant freshwater in the south and water scarcity in the north. To address this issue, the Chinese government decided to implement the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP) in 2002, which includes three routes: East, Middle, and West. The Middle Route of the SNWDP (MRSNWDP) was devised to divert freshwater from the Danjiangkou Reservoir (DJKR) to Henan and Hebei provinces and the Beijing and Tianjin municipalities in China [2]. The Hanjiang River is the longest tributary of the Yangtze River [3], and approximately 70% of the freshwater is diverted to the DJKR. The DJKR is Sensors 2019, 19, 3510; doi:10.3390/s19163510 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors

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