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During the flood season of 2016, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River suffered the worst flooding since 1999, involving Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi and Jiangsu provinces and the Taihu Basin. Based on the field survey at eight counties on both sides along the Yangtze River in Anhui Province, this paper analyses the features of rainstorm, flood and the resulting disaster in 2016 over there, and identifies problems and difficulties existing in flood prevention and disaster reduction under the new situation of social and economic development. Furthermore, this paper discusses the coping strategies and measures on advancing the comprehensive flood management mode of human-water harmony, managing middle and small rivers and strengthening the key basic research on flood control and disaster reduction under the new situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middle and eastern routes of the South-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP) of China, which are approximately located within the area 28°-42°N and 110°-122°E, are being constructed. This paper investigates the past climatic variations on various time scales using instrumental and proxy data. It is found that annual mean surface air temperature has increased significantly during the past 50-100 years, and winter and spring temperatures in the northern part of the region have undergone the most significant changes. A much more significant increase occurs for annual mean minimum temperature and extreme low temperature than for annual mean maximum temperature and extreme high temperature. No significant trend in annual precipitation is found for the region as a whole for the last 50 and 100 years, although obvious decadal and spatial variation is detectable. A seesaw pattern of annual and summer precipitation variability between the north and the south of the region is evident. Over the last 100 years, the Haihe River basin has witnessed a significant negative trend of annual precipitation, but no similar trend is detected for the Yangtze and Huaihe River basins. Pan evaporation has significantly decreased since the mid-1960s in the region in spite of the fact that the trend appears to have ended in the early 1990s. The negative trend of pan evaporation is very significant in the plain area between the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. There was a notable series of dry intervals lasting decades in the north of the region. The northern drought of the past 30 years is not the most severe in view of the past 500 years; however, the southern drought during the period from the 1960s to the 1980s may have been unprecedented. The dryness-wetness index (DWI) shows significant oscillations with periodicities of 9.5 and 20 years in the south and 10.5 and 25 years in the north. Longer periodicities in the DWI series include 160-170- and 70-80-yr oscillations in the north, and 100-150-yr oscillations in the south. The observed climate change could have implications for the construction and management of the SNWDP. The official approval and start of the hydro project was catalyzed by the severe multiyear drought of 1997-2003 in the north, and the operation and management of the project in the future will also be influenced by climate change-in particular by precipitation variability. This paper provides a preliminary discussion of the potential implications of observed climate change for the SNWDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both central-eastern U.S. and China are prone to increasing flooding from Mississippi River and Yangtze River basins respectively. This paper contrasts historical and projected spatialtemporal distribution of extreme precipitation in these two large river basins using 31 CMIP5 (coupled model intercomparison project phase 5) models' historical and RCP8.5 (representative concentration pathway) experiments. Results show that (1) over both river basins, the heaviest rainfall events have increased in recent decades while the lightest precipitation reduced in frequency. Over Mississippi River Basin, both the lightest precipitation (<2.5 mm/day) and heaviest (>50 mm/day) would decrease in frequency notably after mid-2020s while intermediate events occur more frequently in future; whereas over the Yangtze River Basin, all categories of precipitation are projected to increase in frequency over the coming decades. (2) Although the consensus of CMIP5 models was able to reproduce well domain-time mean and even time-averaged spatial distribution of precipitation, they failed to simulate precipitation trends both in spatial distribution and time means. In a similar fashion, models captured well statistics of precipitation but they had difficulty in representing temporal variations of different precipitation intensity categories. (3) The well-documented 2nd half of the 20th century surface summer cooling over the two river basins showed different associations with precipitation trends with higher anti-correlation between them over the U.S. region, implying different processes contributing to the cooling mechanisms of the two river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy rainfall hit the Yangtze-Huai Rivers basin (YHRB) of east China several times during the pro-longed 2007 mei-yu season, causing the worst flood since 1954. There has been an urgent need for attaining and processing high-quality, kilometer-scale, hourly rainfall data in order to understand the mei-yu pre-cipitation processes, especially at the mesoß and smaller scales. In this paper, the authors describe the construction of the 0.07°-resolution gridded hourly rainfall analysis over the YHRB region during the 2007 mei-yu season that is based on surface reports at 555 national and 6572 regional automated weather sta-tions with an average resolution of about 7 km. The gridded hourly analysis is obtained using a modified Cressman-type objective analysis after applying strict quality control, including not only the commonly used internal temporal and spatial consistency and extreme value checks, but also verifications against mosaic radar reflectivity data. This analysis reveals many convectively generated finescale precipitation structures that could not be seen from the national station reports. A comprehensive quantitative as-sessment ensures the quality of the gridded hourly precipitation data. A comparison of this dataset with the U.S. Climate Prediction Center morphing technique (CMORPH) dataset on the same resolution suggests the dependence of the latter's performance on different rainfall intensity categories, with sub-stantial underestimation of the magnitude and width of the mei-yu rainband as well as the nocturnal and morning peak rainfall amounts, due mainly to its underestimating the occurrences of heavy rainfall (i.e., >10mmh-1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province is the largest freshwater lake in China and is historically a region of significant floods. Maximum annual lake stage and the number of severe flood events have increased during the past few decades because of levee construction that reduced the area available for floodwater storage. The most severe floods since 1950 occurred during 1954, 1973, 1983, 1995, and 1998. Each of these floods followed El Niño events that influence the Asian monsoon and that are directly linked to rainfall in the Changjiang (Yangtze River) basin. The 1954 flood was the largest ever recorded until the 1990s. That year the peak Changjiang stage at Hukou was 21.6 m, which was 1.6 m above the previous record high. The last major flood on the Changjiang was during 1998, when the peak Changjiang stage reached 22.5 m, higher than during 1954, even though peak discharge was lower. The most severe floods, including those in 1954 and 1998, require both 1) high rainfall and tributary discharge into Poyang Lake and 2) high Changjiang discharge and stage at Hukou that backflows into the lake or slows Poyang Lake drainage. Since gauging stations were established on the Changjiang, these conditions always occurred following an El Niño. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper focuses on the variation of the annual streamflow and sediment fluxes in the Yangtze River basin from 1956 to 2009 using annual observations at 10 hydrological gauging stations. Both simple linear regression analysis and the Mann-Kendall test are applied to the time series for trend detection, and the relations between streamflow and precipitation and between sediment flux and precipitation are analyzed with the help of a double mass curve function. The results present differing trends of changes in streamflow and sediment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides length-weight relationships for nine fish species from the Laohegou River, a tributary of the upper Yangtze River. Length-weight relationships for six of these species are recorded for the first time. New maximum lengths for two species are also reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydrological cycle is sensitive to the driving forces of climate change. Thus, impact assessment of climate change on water resources from the past to the present is of grave concern for basin management. In this study, water resource spatiotemporal patterns exposed to IPCC scenarios A2 and B2 in the upstream Yangtze River are assessed. Statistically downscaled precipitation and temperature are analyzed. Rainfall-runoff processes are modeled using a distributed hydrological model. Results show that the historical downscaled precipitation and temperature are consistent with observations. Mean air temperature increased for both scenarios. Precipitation generally declined over the region. Runoff is predicted to decrease in most rivers, especially in the wet season, and the variation of hydrographs is obvious. An increase in temperature likely caused the reduction of precipitation leading to the consequent rise of evapotranspiration and decline of surface water and groundwater recharge. Generally, surface water and ground water recharge declined faster in the A2 scenario than B2. Water resources will be in a considerable heterogeneous pattern driven by climate changes. Precipitation, surface water generation, and groundwater recharge share identical spatiotemporal patterns but are predicted to show larger spatial variation in future decades. B2 shows a larger future spatial variation, which may add risks for local droughts and floods. This paper emphasizes the evolution of spatiotemporal variations of water resources from 1999 to 2099 associated with discussions on implications and uncertainties in the upstream Yangtze River region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the spatial variation of sediment yield in the Yangtze basin in China, a large basin with complex geology, climate, land-use history, and extensive sediment monitoring. 287 stations with drainage area less than 10,000km2 were used to study the scale effects of sediment yield. In order to develop scale relations for regional sediment yield, the whole study area was divided into eight sub-basins. Relation between specific sediment yield and drainage basin area was built for each sub-basin. Regional scaling relation was analyzed based on landforms, geology, lithology and land-use of each sub-basin. Three regional trends were identified in relation to the drainage area: (1) a declining trend, due to soil erosion on heavily cultivated steep land and the storage of sediment in floodplains; (2) a flat trend, due to mass movement on the upper reach and heavy agricultural disturbance on the middle and lower reaches; and (3) an increasing trend, due to downstream recruitment of sediment from land downstream where slope farming and deforestation occurred. Using these developed relations, areally adjusted sediment yield maps were created over the entire Yangtze basin. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present study aims to evaluate three global satellite precipitation products [TMPA 3B42, version 7 (3B42 V7); TMPA 3B42 real time (3B42 RT); and Climate Prediction Center morphing technique (CMORPH)] during 2003-12 for multiscale hydrologic applications-including annual water budgeting, monthly and daily streamflow simulation, and extreme flood modeling-via a distributed hydrological model in the Yangtze River basin. The comparison shows that the 3B42 V7 data generally have a better performance in annual water budgeting and monthly streamflow simulation, but this superiority is not guaranteed for daily simulation, especially for flood monitoring. It is also found that, for annual water budgeting, the positive (negative) bias of the 3B42 RT (CMORPH) estimate is mainly propagated into the simulated runoff, and simulated evapotranspiration tends to be more sensitive to negative bias. Regarding streamflow simulation, both near-real-time products show a region-dependent bias: 3B42 RT tends to overestimate streamflow in the upper Yangtze River, and, in contrast, CMORPH shows serious underestimation in those downstream subbasins while it is able to effectively monitor streamflow into the Three Gorges Reservoir. Using 394 selected flood events, the results indicate that 3B42 RT and CMORPH have competitive performances for near-real-time flood monitoring in the upper Yangtze, but for those downstream subbasins, 3B42 RT seems to perform better than CMORPH. Furthermore, the inability of all satellite products to capture some key features of the July 2012 extreme floods reveals the deficiencies associated with them, which will limit their hydrologic utility in local flood monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes changes in global radiation in the Yangtze River basin during 1961 to 2010. Global radiation decreased significantly from 1961 to 1989 and increased from 1990 to 2010, which has been described as “from dimming to brightening”. The analysis indicates that changes in fuel consumption were responsible for the variation in global radiation, while changes in meteorological variables had a limited contribution. The impact of changing global radiation on the water cycle is discussed. The change in global radiation was possibly the main cause of changes in potential evapotranspiration, which also decreased from 1961 to 1989 and increased from 1990 to 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the pre-Jurassic marine source rocks in China has been difficult because these rocks are generally too high- or over-maturated for most traditional methods to work. As to the remaining parameter TOC (%), its lower limit for recognizing the carbonate source rocks in China has been in dispute. Nineteen Phanerozoic sections in the Middle-Upper Yangtze Platform and the Guizhou-Hunan-Guangxi Basin have been studied in search for a different approach to complementing the traditional evaluation method for these source rocks. We have applied a geobiological approach to tracing the organic carbon (OC) output and accumulation from the living stage (primary productivity) to the post-mortem deposited remains, and finally to the preserved burial organics. Four biological and geological parameters are employed to represent the OC of the three stages. A series of proxies of these parameters are discussed and integrated to establish a geobiological evaluation system independent of TOC and other traditional methods. Here we use the Guangyuan section in Sichuan as an example for the geobiological evaluation. Our results indicate that in the argillaceous rocks, the geobiological parameters show the qualified source rocks in accordance with high TOC values; but in the carbonates, the good source rocks delineated by the geobiological parameters have a wide range of TOC, from 0.03% to 1.59%, mostly <0.3%. We suggest that it is still premature to set TOC=0.3% or 0.5% as the lower limit for the pre-Jurassic carbonate source rocks in South China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four major reaches of Chiangjang (Yangtze River) were analyzed for the period 1956-2007 in terms of long-term trends in suspended sediment gain and loss in each reach, the relation of input and output to within-reach sediment fluxes, and the impacts of dam construction on reach sediment dynamics. The temporal and spatial patterns of within-reach sediment dynamics correspond closely with river morphology and also reflect basin conditions over the past few decades; thus they are conditioned by coeval trends in climate, hydrology, and land use. The study period encompasses both unusually wet years (e.g., 1998) and unusually dry periods (e.g., 2006). There are suggestive coincidences between changes in the suspended sediment regime and innovations in land use, sediment mining, and dams. The relatively strong statistical relation between sediment input and output for each of the four study reaches, and weak relations between storage and output, imply that most sediment supplied to each reach is delivered from upstream and that relatively small amounts of sediment are recruited within each reach. Cumulative departure plots reveal epicycles of sediment exchange varying from 15 to 40 years, implying a characteristic fine sediment storage time on the order of decades. Shorter epicycles (5-8 years) are commonly related to sediment influx associated with major floods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time series of the average annual Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) and standardized precipitation index (SPI) were calculated for 483 meteorological stations in China using monthly data from 1961 to 2005. The time series were analyzed for 10 large regions covering the territory of China and represented by seven river basins and three areas in the southeast, southwest, and northwest. Results show that the frequencies of both dry and wet years for the whole period are lower for southern basins than for the northern ones when estimated by PDSI but very similar for all basins when calculated by SPI. The frequencies of dry and wet years calculated for 5- and 15-yr subperiods by both indices show the upward dry trends for three northeastern basins, Songhuajiang, Liaohe, and Haihe; a downward dry trend for the northwest region; a downward wet trend for the Yellow River basin; and an upward wet trend for the northwest region. Trend detection using PDSI indicates statistically significant negative trends for many stations in the northeastern basins (Songhuajiang, Liaohe, Haihe, and Yellow) and in the middle part of the Yangtze, whereas statistically significant positive trends were found in the mountainous part of the northwest region and for some stations in the upper and lower Yangtze. A moderately high and statistically significant correlation between the percentage of runoff anomaly (PRA) and the annual average PDSI and SPI was found for six large rivers. The results confirm that PDSI and SPI indices can be used to describe the tendency of dryness and wetness severity and for comparison in climate impact assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]