Water use characteristics and impact factors in the Yellow River basin, China

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the water use characteristics and impact factors in the Yellow River basin. Water use increased from 1980 to 2000 and then stabilized. Water use in the eight regions of the basin varies significantly in both time and space. Water use in different sectors is sensitive to variations in the irrigation area, industrial added value, efficiency, population and urbanization. Change trends are the results of the joint effects of supply-and-demand relationship and water policy. Water use is insensitive to precipitation, because irrigation mainly relies on river water and groundwater.

KEYWORDS:

• Water use
• socio-economic factor
• water policy
• precipitation
• Yellow River basin

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Before 2000, water use and economic data for the Yellow River basin were published only every five years.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Programme of China (No. 2016YFC0402405), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51779270, 51309248), the project of YREC for evolution of water use and consumption and runoff variation in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, and the Foundation of SKL-WAC (SKL2018TS04).