Presenter
Mr. Yongtao Cao, Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research
Co-author(s)
Mrs. Enhui Jiang, Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research
Dr. Linjuan Xu, Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research
Dr. Pengfei He, Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research
Sub-theme
3. Building Resilience for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation
Topic
3-4. Floodwater resource management and utilization
Body
The less water and amounted sediment, and the shortage of water resources are the main contradictions faced by the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. Water and sediment regulation is not only an important measure to shape and coordinate the relationship between water and sediment, and ensure the flood control safety of the Yellow River, but also an important prerequisite to improve the efficiency of sediment transport and ensure the utilization of flood resources. Based on the characteristics of water and sediment inflows from the Yellow River in recent years, as well as the boundary conditions of reservoirs and downstream rivers, the necessity of continuous water and sediment regulation is discussed from the aspects of flood control safety, ecological restoration, and water resource utilization. The optimization and innovation of water and sediment regulation indicators and application patterns by the flood control support team of Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research are systematically summarized, as well as the implementation effectiveness. According to the tracking and monitoring results over the years, water and sediment regulation has significant effects in maintaining the stability of the normal flood channel and river regime, adjusting the deposition morphology of reservoirs, and optimizing sediment transport efficiency. Especially, since 2021, without reducing the flood discharge capacity of downstream rivers, the 4 times water and sediment regulation have utilized 17.37 billion cubic meters of water to transported 0.17billion tons of sediment into the sea, the average sediment transport efficiency is 10.0 kg/m3, which is much higher than the sediment transport efficiency of 4~6kg/m3 for pure water discharge. Overall, water and sediment regulation has saved a large amount of water for sediment transport, providing valuable water resources for ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin while ensuring flood control safety, which has enormous social, ecological, and economic benefits.