Evaluating the effects of dams and meteorological variables on riparian vegetation NDVI in the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

As the third pole of the world, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) has a very special climate and geographical environment. In the past 20 years, with the increasing demand for clean energy, more than ten hydropower stations have been built. The impacts of these hydropower stations on riparian vegetation (RV) have only been described qualitatively in previous studies, while the contribution of dams and meteorological variables to riparian vegetation has not been quantitatively assessed. This study selected eight representative large-scale hydropower stations in the QTP, calculated and analyzed the dynamics of the standardized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of the RV pre-and post the dams construction, combined with the measured temperature and precipitation data to explore the driving factors of RV changes. The results show that the dams promoted the growth of RV and they were the main contributor (>50%) while precipitation and temperature had relatively small impacts. The effect of dams varies for different regions, compared with the sub-cold regions, it was more significant in humid and semi-humid regions of temperate zone. The dams affected RV in an indirect way through regulating the microclimate, promoting precipitation and slowing down the rate of temperature rise and these effects may come from the increase of the upstream water surface area.