The relationship between irrigation water demand and drought in the Yellow River basin

In order to organize water for drought resistance reasonably, we need to study the relationship between irrigation water demand and meteorological drought in quantitative way. We chose five typical irrigation districts including the Qingtongxia irrigation district, Yellow River irrigation districts of Inner Mongolia in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, the Fen river irrigation district and the Wei river irrigation district in the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the irrigation districts in the lower reaches of the Yellow River as research area. Based on the hydrology, meteorology, groundwater and crop parameters materials from 1956 to 2010 in the Yellow River basin, we selected reconnaissance drought index (RDI) to analyze occurrence and evolution regularity of drought in the five typical irrigation districts, and calculated the corresponding irrigation water demand by using crop water balance equation. The relationship of drought and irrigation water demand in each typical irrigation district was studied by using grey correlation analysis and relevant analysis method, and the quantitative relationship between irrigation water demand and RDI was established in each typical irrigation district. The results showed that the RDI can be applied to evaluate the meteorological drought in the typical irrigation districts of the Yellow River basin. There is significant correlation between the irrigation water demand and RDI, and the grey correlation degree and correlation coefficient increased with increasing crops available effective rainfall. The irrigation water demand of irrigation districts in the upstream, middle and downstream of the Yellow River basin presented different response degrees to drought. The irrigation water demand increased 105 million m(3) with the drought increasing one grade (RDI decreasing 0.5) in the Qingtongxia irrigation district and Yellow River irrigation districts of Inner Mongolia. The irrigation water demand increased 219 million m(3) with the drought increasing one grade in the Fen river irrigation district and Wei river irrigation district. The irrigation water demand increased 622 million m(3) with the drought increasing one grade in the downstream of Yellow River irrigation districts.