Analysis of water resources in the Yellow River basin in the last century

A statistical analysis on the precipitation and river discharge was carried out to explore annual and seasonal changes of water resources in the Yellow River basin in the last century. Together with a distributed hydrological model, this research examined the reason for river dry-up along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. In the upper basin up to the Lanzhou station, it was found that the observed runoff decreased by 23% from the 1950s to the 1990s; climate change contributed about 20% of this decrease, taking into account artificial water use. It was known that the river flow in the lower reaches downstream of the Huayuankou gauge during the dry season, was mainly supplied by the runoff generated from the upper basin above the Lanzhou gauge. The river dry-ups along the lower reaches were caused by both climate change and artificial water use.