Abstract
Climate change and anthropogenic activities are the two main driving elements influencing changes in streamflow. Previous studies mainly focused on the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities on annual mean streamflow (AMS), ignoring annual maximum streamflow (Amax) and annual minimum streamflow (Amin). On the other hand, most previous studies attributed the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities synoptically. However, the separate influence mechanism among climatic variables, such as precipitation, temperature, sunshine duration change, direct human activities, and land use cover change, needs further analysis. We used the Water and Energy transfer Processes in Large River basin (WEP–L) model to quantify the impacts of climatic variables (precipitation, temperature, and sunshine duration) and anthropogenic activities (land use cover change (LUCC) and direct human activities (DHAs)) on streamflow in the Caojiang River Basin (CRB) with a tropical climate. The results indicate that anthropogenic activities play a major role in streamflow indictor variation. Of the investigated factors related to climate change, precipitation showed the greatest impact on streamflow variation. Notably, DHA contributed the most to the variation of the three streamflow indictors, followed by precipitation, temperature, and sunshine duration, while LUCC had a much lower impact on streamflow variation. This study investigated the response of different streamflow indicators (AMS, Amax, and Amin) to climate change and anthropogenic activities, and it is of value to watershed resource planning and management.
Highlights
Climate change and anthropogenic activities are the two primary elements affecting the hydrological cycle [1,2,3,4]
Wang et al [17] quantified the impact of climate change and anthropogenic activities on streamflow variation in the Songhua River Basin using a cumulative quantity method based on the slope change ratio
We investigated temporal variations in precipitation, temperature, and sunshine duration in the Caojiang River Basin (CRB) from 1967–2018 (Figure 3)
Summary
Climate change and anthropogenic activities are the two primary elements affecting the hydrological cycle [1,2,3,4]. Under the impacts of climate change and frequent anthropogenic activities, streamflow has changed [5,6,7,8]. Quantifying the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities on streamflow aids in understanding the relationship between hydrological processes with climate and environmental change, and provides a scientific basis for water resource management. The effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities on streamflow variation have been investigated and quantified worldwide [13,14,15,16] through statistical analysis, climate elasticity, and hydrological models. Wang et al [17] quantified the impact of climate change and anthropogenic activities on streamflow variation in the Songhua River Basin using a cumulative quantity method based on the slope change ratio
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