Low Flow Regimes of the Tarim River Basin, China: Probabilistic Behavior, Causes and Implications

Peng Sun,Vijay Singh,Changqing Song,Qiang Zhang,Rui Yao

doi:10.3390/w10040470

Peng Sun, Vijay Singh + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/w10040470

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Abstract

Droughts are a frequent occurrence in Xinjiang, China, and therefore fundamental to determining their hydrologic characteristics is low flow analysis. To that end, 11 probability distribution functions and 26 copulas functions were employed to analyze the changing characteristics of low flow regime (defined as seven-day low flow) of the Tarim River Basin. Results indicated that: (1) The Wakeby distribution satisfactorily described the probabilistic behavior of the low flow regime. According to Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Bayesian Information Criterions (BIC), maximum likelihood, and other residual-based metrics, Tawn copula, Farlie–Gumbel–Morgenstern copula and Frank copula were the best choice and used in this current study. (2) After 1987, hydrological droughts of longer return periods were prone to higher occurrence frequency. (3) The low flow volume has been increasing in recent years due to the temperature-induced increase of snowmelt and increasing precipitation. However, hydrological droughts can be expected to occur due to the massive increase in water demand from the development of irrigated agriculture, increasing arable land and livestock farming. As a result, the water shortage in the lower Tarim River Basin will be increasingly severe under the influence of climate change and human activities. To alleviate the shortage would call for the development of water-saving agricultural irrigation, water-saving technology, conservation of eco-environment and sustainable development of local socio-economy.

Highlights

Hydrologists have paid greater attention to floods that are normally associated with more visible and dramatic hazards, damages and economic losses [1]
The Wakeby functions were used to describe the probabilistic behavior of the seven-day low flow regime in the Tarim River Basin
It is worth noting that a visual inspection of the 26 copulas fitted to the seven-day low flow shows that the Tawn copula provides a very good fit to the data with a NSE = 0.9978 (NSE = 1 is associated with a perfect fit) and is selected as the best copula according to Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Bayesian Information Criterions (BIC), maximum likelihood, and other residual-based metrics in Yarkand River Basin

Summary

Introduction

Hydrologists have paid greater attention to floods that are normally associated with more visible and dramatic hazards, damages and economic losses [1]. This has been especially true in China, partially due to the recurrence of severe floods in major river basins in the past few decades [2,3,4]. Water 2018, 10, 470 a major component in the drought conception [7,8]. An understanding and estimation of low-flow characteristics are vital to the sustainable development and management of water resources and for monitoring practices of drought hazards [11,12,13]

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