Quantifying the runoff reduction benefits of the ‘Grain for Green’ Programme using the VIC model

ABSTRACT

Variable infiltration capacity model is used to quantitatively analyse the runoff reduction benefits of three basins on the Loess Plateau since the implementation of the ‘Grain for Green’ programme. The programme played an important role, contributing to >60% of the runoff variation in the different basins. Furthermore, for every 1000 km² increase in cumulative forest area in basins, the rate of runoff coefficient reduction changed by −30%, −37.3% and 169% in the late stage of the programme compared to the early stage, respectively (‘-’ represents a decrease in reduction rate). This was closely related to the restoration of vegetation.

KEYWORDS:

• Variable infiltration capacity model
• the ‘grain for green’ programme
• runoff reduction benefits
• quantitative analysis
• Loess Plateau

Acknowledgements

We are especially grateful to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions, which have improved the quality of the manuscript.

Author contribution statement

Aying Shi: formal analysis, methodology, writing – original draft, software; Ruichen Mao: conceptualization, methodology, writing – review and editing; Jinxi Song: supervision, project administration, funding acquisition, investigation, data curation; Xiaoxin Li: writing – review and editing; Junqing Gao: writing – review and editing; Haotian Sun: formal analysis, writing – review and editing; Jiawei Zhao: data curation, resources; Bingjie Li: data curation, resources.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2024.2352384

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Nos 42230513 and 42041004].