Climate and Environmental Change

The trend on runoff variations in the Lhasa River Basin

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  • 1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China|
    2. Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS, Beijing 100085, China|
    3. Tibet Hydroelectric Investigation, Designed Research Institute, Lhasa 850000, China|
    4. Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China|
    5. Tibet Hydrographic and Water Resources Survey Bureau, Lhasa 850000, China|
    6. Institute of Xizang-Plateau Atmosphere Environment Sciences, Lhasa 850000, China

Received date: 2007-10-17

  Revised date: 2007-12-11

  Online published: 2008-02-25

Supported by

National Basic Research Program of China, No.2005CB422006; National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.90202012; No.40561002

Abstract

Taking the Lhasa River Basin above Lhasa hydrological station in Tibetan Plateau as a study area, the characteristics of the annual and monthly mean runoff during 1956?2003 were analyzed, based on the hydro-data of the two hydrological stations (Lhasa and Tanggya) and the meteorological data of the three meteorological stations (Damxung, Lhasa and Tanggya). The trends and the change points of runoff and climate from 1956 to 2003 were detected using the nonparametric Mann-Kendall test and Pettitt-Mann-Whitney change-point statistics. The correlations between runoff and climate change were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The major results could be summarized as follows: (1) The annual mean runoff during the last 50 years is characterized by a great fluctuation and a positive trend with two change points (around 1970 and the early 1980s), after which the runoff tended to in-crease and was increasing intensively in the last 20 years. Besides, the monthly mean runoff with a positive trend is centralized in winter half-year (November to April) and some other months (May, July and September). (2) The trends of the climate change in the study area are generally consistent with the trend of the runoff, but the leading climate factors which aroused the runoff variation are distinct. Precipitation is the dominant factor influencing the annual and monthly mean runoff in summer half year, while temperature is the primary factor in winter season.

Cite this article

LIN Xuedong, ZHANG Yili, YAO Zhijun, GONG Tongliang, WANG Hong, CHU Duo, LIU Linshan, ZHANG Fei . The trend on runoff variations in the Lhasa River Basin[J]. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2008 , 18(1) : 95 -106 . DOI: 10.1007/s11442-008-0095-4

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