Effects of Watershed Vegetation on Tributary Water Yields During the Wet Season in the Heishui Valley, China

• Published in: Water resources management Vol. 25; no. 5; pp. 1449 - 1464
• Main Authors: Liu, Yuhong, Leng, Xin, Deng, Zifa, Wang, Lixin, Zhang, Li, Liu, Shirong, An, Shuqing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands 01-03-2011; Springer Netherlands; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences; China; Civil Engineering; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Economic development; Effects; Environment; Environmental monitoring; Environmental risk; Exact sciences and technology; Floods; Freshwater; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Hydrogeology; Hydrology; Hydrology. Hydrogeology; Hydrology/Water Resources; Isotope geochemistry; Isotope geochemistry. Geochronology; Isotopes; Land cover type; Landsat; Mathematical analysis; Meadows; Precipitation; Rainy season; Remote sensing; Risk reduction; Rivers; Scale; Seasons; Stable isotope; Stable isotopes; Studies; Topography; Tributaries; Valleys; Vegetation; Water resources; Water yield; Watershed management; Watersheds; Wet season; Far East; Asia; China; Yangtze River; Sichuan China; Land cover type; Stable isotope; Scale; Water yield; Remote sensing; Watershed; tributaries; vegetation; drainage basins; hydrochemistry; deuterium; land cover; satellites; stable isotopes; Thematic Mapper; land cover maps; water policy; Space remote sensing; Landsat; indicators; drainage divide; forests; water yield; water resource management; valleys; communities
• ISSN: 0920-4741; 1573-1650
• DOI: 10.1007/s11269-010-9754-1

The relationships between water yields of tributaries and coverage of different vegetation types in the corresponding sub-watersheds were investigated during the wet season in the Heishui River Valley, located in the upper portion of the Yangtze River in western China. Stable isotope analysis was used to calculate the relative contributions of the tributaries to water yield in the main stem of the Heishui River, while relative coverages of the different vegetation types were calculated from classified Landsat 7 TM satellite images of the study area. We found that all the sub-watersheds were dominated by two vegetation types (subalpine forest and alpine shrub-meadow) which influenced water yields in opposite ways. Lower subalpine forest coverage was significantly associated with higher tributary water yield, whereas lower alpine shrub-meadow coverage was associated with lower tributary water yield. Comparing our results to similar studies at different spatial scales, we found increasing uncertainty in the relationship between vegetation coverage (total and individual community types) and water yields as scale increased. Nevertheless, the quantitative relationships found in our study may prove useful at the appropriate scales by allowing policy makers and managers to use vegetation coverage as an indicator or index of water yield when attempting to manipulate the vegetation of watersheds to reduce the risk of flooding in this region.