Abstract
Under the influence of climate change and human activities, sediment load in rivers has changed significantly, which has a profound impact on the stability of ecosystems and the sustainable development of human beings. Taking the Yanhe River watershed as a case, this paper expounds the dynamic relationship among the Grain for Green Project, social and economic development, population migration, and sediment transport. The variability of sediment load was detected by Pettitt test, the double cumulative curve method, and the regression analysis method, and the effects of climate and human activities on sediment load were quantitatively analyzed. The results showed that 1) from 1956 to 2016, the precipitation of Yanhe River watershed rose slightly in the past 10 years, but the sediment load decreased significantly; 1996 was identified as the catastrophic year of the study period, when the contribution of climate change and human activity to reduced sediment load was 14.1% and 85.9%, respectively. 2) The Grain for Green Project increased the vegetation coverage of the study area from 40.6% to 78.5%. 3) The proportion of agricultural GDP in total GDP decreased from 52.26% to 7.3%, and the proportion of agricultural GDP was positively correlated with sediment transport and cultivated land area (p < 0.01). 4) Population migration resulted in the urbanization rate reaching 40.23%, and the urbanization rate is negatively correlated with sediment load and cultivated land area (p < 0.01), while the cultivated land area is positively correlated with sediment load (p < 0.01). The decrease of cultivated land area makes the sediment load gradually decrease. Therefore, socio-economic factors promote the sustainable development of the river basin.
Highlights
A watershed is a relatively independent and naturally formed ecosystem and a significant place for human habitation and socio-economic development [1]
4) Population migration resulted in the urbanization rate reaching 40.23%, and the urbanization rate is negatively correlated with sediment load and cultivated land area (p < 0.01), while the cultivated land area is positively correlated with sediment load (p < 0.01)
This paper presents a socio-hydrologic analysis centered on the Yanhe River watershed, which is located in the middle of the Loess Plateau (Figure 1)
Summary
A watershed is a relatively independent and naturally formed ecosystem and a significant place for human habitation and socio-economic development [1]. In order to effectively control soil erosion and restore ecosystems, the government has adopted various water-saving measures and policies—such as building silt dams [24,25], reservoirs [26], and terraces [21]—and other ecological measures and the policy of returning farmland to forests [27,28] These measures have altered the process of sediment supply in natural watersheds and the geomorphology of rivers, thereby affecting the connectivity of runoff, soil erosion, water, and sediment transport and drastically reducing sediment load in the Yellow River watershed [29]. Based on the meteorological data, runoff and sediment data and socio-economic data from the Yanhe River watershed are used to explore the relationship between the policy of returning farmland to forest, social and economic factors and sediment load, so as to clarify the relationship between social development and sediment load and promote the sustainable development of the watershed
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