Spatio-temporal changes and their relationship in water resources and agricultural disasters across China

ABSTRACT

Changes in monthly streamflow and the potential influences and feedbacks of agricultural activities are investigated. Significant decreases in streamflow are observed in northern China, including the Yellow, Huaihe and Haihe river basins, while in southern China streamflow increases significantly in the Yangtze, Pearl and South river basins. This spatial pattern of changes in streamflow indicates that the imbalance in water resources between northern (dry) and southern (wet) China has increased during past decades. On the one hand, available water resources are a controlling factor determining the expansion of irrigated land and the structure of crop plantation (i.e. rice, wheat, corn or bean); on the other hand, crop planting structure and effective irrigated areas are important determinants of changes in streamflow. The increasing effective irrigation and rice planting areas in northern China may increase water withdrawal from rivers, causing subsequent decreases in streamflow, while in southeastern China, decreasing effective irrigation areas enhance the increases in streamflow.

KEYWORDS:

• water resources
• irrigation
• crop plantation structure
• agriculture disasters
• China

Editor A. Castellarin; Associate editor A. Viglione

Editor A. Castellarin; Associate editor A. Viglione

Acknowledgments

Detailed information such as data can be obtained by writing to the corresponding author at [email protected]. We thank the four eminent reviewers, the associate editor Dr Alberto Viglione and the editor Dr Attilio Castellarin, whose comments and suggestions improved our study significantly.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Programme of China [Grant no. 2018YFA0605603], the Strategic Priority Research Programme Grant of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [Grant no. XDA19070402], the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) [Grant nos CUG180614 and CUGCJ1702], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant no. 41701038], and the Guangxi Natural Science Foundation [Grant no. 2017GXNSFBA198129].