Abstract
Abstract. Ecological deterioration in arid regions caused by agricultural development has become a global issue. Understanding water requirements of the oasis ecosystems and the influences of human agricultural activities and climate change is important for the sustainable development of oasis ecosystems and water resource management in arid regions. In this study, water requirements of the main oasis in Heihe River basin during 1986–2013 were analyzed and the amount showed a sharp increase from 10.8 × 108 m3 in 1986 to 19.0 × 108 m3 in 2013. Both human agricultural activities and climate change could lead to the increase in water requirement. To quantify the contributions of agricultural activities and climate change to the increase in water requirements, partial derivative and slope method were used. Results showed that climate change and human agricultural activities, such as oasis expansion and changes in land cropping structure, has contributed to the increase in water requirement at rates of 6.9, 58.1, and 25.3 %, respectively. Overall, human agricultural activities were the dominant forces driving the increase in water requirement. In addition, the contribution of oasis expanding to the increased water requirement was significantly greater than that of other concerned variables. This reveals that controlling the oasis scale is extremely important and effective for balancing water for agriculture and ecosystems and to achieving a sustainable oasis development in arid regions.
Highlights
Inland river basins take up about 11.4 % of the land area in the world and most of them are distributed over arid regions (Li et al, 2013)
For the inland river basins in arid regions, water resources mainly originate from the precipitation and snow/glacier melting in the upstream mountainous areas, and are consumed mainly by agriculture and human society in oases of the piedmont plains in the midstream area, and are discharged and dispersed in the tail lakes downstream (Kang et al, 1999; Shen and Chen, 2010)
After validation to ensure the accuracy of the results, the water balance and determinants to the variation of the water requirement of the oasis in the middle Heihe River basin were analyzed
Summary
Inland river basins take up about 11.4 % of the land area in the world and most of them are distributed over arid regions (Li et al, 2013). Water resources in arid regions are scarce and critical to ecosystems and societies. For the inland river basins in arid regions, water resources mainly originate from the precipitation and snow/glacier melting in the upstream mountainous areas, and are consumed mainly by agriculture and human society in oases of the piedmont plains in the midstream area, and are discharged and dispersed in the tail lakes downstream (Kang et al, 1999; Shen and Chen, 2010).
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