Quantitative Analysis of Human Impact on River Runoff in the Laohahe Basin through the Conceptual Xin'anjiang Model

Due to a decreasing tendency of river runoff in the Laohahe River basin in North China, quantitative analysis was made with the aid of the conceptual Xinanjiang model under the background of nature climate variability as well as human-induced climate change according to the long-term observational hydrometeorological data. In the past, the human effect on surface water resources was estimated by investigating the impact of human activities on each item in the equation of water balance, so as to calculate water quantity of each item in the original natural status. It seems to be clear conceptually. It is appropriate just for the case of direct impact, such as water transfer from one basin to another, water storage by various scales of hydraulic projects, besides a huge amount of investigation and indeterminate statistics data when applied in practice. It is difficult for us to compute directly water consumption due to the implementation of measures for soil conservation, the improvement of farming techniques in agriculture, the growth of population in towns and villages, and the change of socioeconomic structure. In view of such situation, the Xinanjiang model was used to separate human impact from the climatic impact on water resources. Quantitatively human activity made river runoff decrease by 1.02, 50.67, 58.06 mm in 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, respectively, while by 97.2 mm in 1990's in the sense of annual average in the Laohahe River basin.