Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 9
Simulation of River Flow for Downstream
Water Allocation in the Heihe River
Watershed, Northwest China
Chansheng He, Lanhui Zhang, Li Fu, Yi Luo, Lanhai Li
and Carlo DeMarchi
Abstract Multiple demands for water for large agricultural irrigation schemes,
increasing industrial development, and rapid urban population growth have
depleted downstream flows most of the time in the arid Heihe River Watershed,
Northwest China, causing shrinking oases and tensions among different water
jurisdictions and ethnic groups. To address this pressing issue, the State Council of
the People's Republic of China has issued an executive order to mandate the
release of water downstream for ecosystem restoration. This paper describes the
adaptation of the Distributed Large Basin Runoff Model to the Heihe Watershed to
gain an understanding of the distribution of glacial/snow melt, groundwater, sur-
face runoff, and evapotranspiration in the upper and middle reaches of the
watershed. The simulated daily river flows for 1990-2000 show that Qilian
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