Longfei Han

Degrading river network due to urbanization in Yangtze River Delta

Evolution of river systems under the background of human activities has been a heated topic among geographers and hydrologists. Spatial and temporal variations of river systems during the 1960s–2010s in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) were investigated based on streams derived from the topographic maps in the 1960s, 1980s and 2010s. A list of indices, drainage density (Dd), water surface ratio (WSR), ratio of area to length of main streams (R), evolution coefficient of tributaries (K) and box dimension (D), were classified into three types (quantitative, structural, and complex indices) and used to quantify the variations of stream structure. Results showed that: (1) quantitative indices (Dd, WSR) presented decreasing trend in the past 50 years, and Dd in Wuchengxiyu, Hangjiahu and Yindongnan have decreased most, about 20%. Structurally, the Qinhuai River basin was characterized by significant upward R, and K value in Hangjiahu went down dramatically by 46.8% during the 1960s–2010s. Decreasing tendency in D was found dominating across the YRD, and decreasing magnitude in Wuchengxiyu and Hangjiahu peaks for 7.8% and 6.5%, respectively in the YRD. (2) Urbanization affected the spatial pattern of river system, and areas with high level of urbanization exhibited least Dd (2.18 km/km2), WSR (6.52%), K (2.64) and D (1.42), compared to moderate and low levels of urbanization. (3) Urbanization also affected the evolution of stream system. In the past 50 years, areas with high level of urbanization showed compelling decreasing tendency in quantitative (27.2% and 19.3%) and complex indices (4.9%) and trend of enlarging of main rivers (4.5% and 7.9% in periods of the 1960s–1980s and the 1980s–2010s). In the recent 30 years, areas with low level of urbanization were detected with significant downward trend in Dd and K. (4) Expanding of urban land, construction of hydraulic engineering and irrigation and water conservancy activities were the main means which degraded the river system in the YRD.

Impacts of Urbanization on Precipitation in Taihu Lake Basin, China

AbstractTaking Suxichang and Hangjiahu urban agglomerations in Taihu Lake Basin as study areas, the authors explore differences in annual precipitation, flood season precipitation, annual maximum daily precipitation, and rainfall days of different types between cities and suburbs from 1961 to 2006. The authors also investigate the trends of precipitation change by means of Mann-Kendall test and rescaled range analysis. The results show that the amount of precipitation increased with the level of urbanization at spatial and temporal scales. The maximum daily precipitation and the number of rainstorms in urban areas also increased. With further development of urbanization, the increase would continue in the future. The two urban agglomerations with similar level of urbanization and climatic conditions are consistent in terms of all research indicators applied in this paper. The results are basically consistent with many previous studies, while the study area has its own characteristics in that the maximum r...

Scale-dependence effects of landscape on seasonal water quality in Xitiaoxi catchment of Taihu Basin, China.

Further understanding the mechanisms of landscape-water interactions is of great importance to water quality management in the Xitiaoxi catchment. Pearsons correlation analysis, stepwise multiple regression and redundancy analysis were adopted in this study to investigate the relation between water quality and landscape at the sub-catchment and 200 m riparian zone scales during dry and wet seasons. Landscape was characterized by natural environmental factors, land use patterns and four selected landscape configuration metrics. The obtained results indicated that land use categories of urban and forest were dominant landscape attributes, which influenced water quality. Natural environment and landscape configuration were overwhelmed due to land management activities and hydrologic conditions. In general, the landscape of the 200 m riparian zone appeared to have slightly greater influence on water than did the sub-catchment, and water quality was slightly better explained by all landscape attributes in the wet season than in the dry season. The results suggested that management efforts aimed at maintaining and restoring river water quality should currently focus on the protection of riparian zones and the development of an updated long-term continuous data set and higher resolution digital maps to discuss the minimum width of the riparian zone necessary to protect water quality.