Abstract
Both the temperature and the precipitation in China’s arid northwestern zone have increased, eliciting corresponding changes in hydrological processes in the region’s inland basins. This chapter analyzes the characteristics of runoff and its components, the main findings are: (1) Runoff increased significantly at stations around the Tianshan Mountains. (2) The digital filtering method was used to separate baseflow from surface flow, after which the baseflow index (BFI) was calculated and analyzed. We find that baseflows of the four headstreams have increased considerably over the past 50 years. The baseflow and BFI showed obvious seasonal variations: The lowest baseflow and BFI typically occurred in December and January, and both increased gradually until reaching maximum values in August or July. And precipitation had a significant impact on runoff, whereas temperature strongly affected baseflow. In addition, in the Tizinafu River, the contribution of ice/snowmelt water varied from 25.96 to 68.87 % for spatial characteristics, and from 28.31 to 65.43 % for seasonal characteristics. The mean of the ice/snowmelt percentage is 43 %, which meant that ice/snowmelt water was the main supplying water source. (3) Using the data from 1960 to 2010, future runoff amounts were predicted. Some results can be concluded as follows: Runoff in the Aksu, Yarkand, and Hotan rivers will be low in 2010–2011 but will experience continued growth in 2017–2028.
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Chen, Y., Li, B., Chen, Z., Fan, Y. (2014). Hydrologic System in Northwest China. In: Chen, Y. (eds) Water Resources Research in Northwest China. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8017-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8017-9_3
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