Analysis on the streamflow components of the typical inland river, Northwest China

ABSTRACT

Runoff generation and dynamics is an important issue in watershed and water resource management. Taking the Aksu River as a typical inland river, the spatial and temporal variations of δ¹⁸O and δD of the river water and its sources component pattern were investigated from May 2012 to May 2013. The results showed the following three main findings. Firstly, we analysed the runoff generation and mechanism over a longer time-scale in two tributaries of the Aksu River. Secondly, 46–54% of the runoff in the Aksu River was derived from groundwater, 31–36% from glacier meltwater, 5–8.8% from snow meltwater and 10% from precipitation. The third major finding was the significant inconsistency of the climate change impact on water resources. Specifically, our results showed that the Toxkan River is recharged by more glacier meltwater (36%), and responds to sensitive temperature changes. Autumn runoff is more sensitive to changes of precipitation and temperature.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz Associate editor Not assigned

KEYWORDS:

• runoff
• isotopic separation
• streamflow component
• Aksu River basin

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the “One Hundred Talents Program” (No. Y071121) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program: 2010CB951003) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 41101042).