Can Reservoir Regulation Along the Yellow River Be a Sustainable Way to Save a Sinking Delta?

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dc.citation.articleNumbere2020EF001587en_US
dc.citation.issueNumber11en_US
dc.citation.journalTitleEarth's Futureen_US
dc.citation.volumeNumber8en_US
dc.contributor.authorWu, Xiaoen_US
dc.contributor.authorBi, Naishuangen_US
dc.contributor.authorSyvitski, Jaiaen_US
dc.contributor.authorSaito, Yoshikien_US
dc.contributor.authorXu, Jingpingen_US
dc.contributor.authorNittrouer, Jeffrey A.en_US
dc.contributor.authorBianchi, Thomas S.en_US
dc.contributor.authorYang, Zuoshengen_US
dc.contributor.authorWang, Houjieen_US
dc.date.accessioned2020-12-16T19:47:15Zen_US
dc.date.available2020-12-16T19:47:15Zen_US
dc.date.issued2020en_US
dc.description.abstractToday's deltas are impacted negatively by (1) accelerated subsidence (e.g., from ground fluid extraction), (2) global eustatic sea level rise, and (3) decreased sediment supply, which increasingly starves these landforms of sediment necessary to sustain their footprint. This growing vulnerability threatens many megacities that have developed due to the rich resources offered by deltas and therefore urgently calls for efforts to maintain sustainability. The Yellow River of China is classic example of such a landform under threat and which requires human intervention to maintain its resilience. Since 2002, the Yellow River Conservancy Commission has enacted an annual water and sediment regulation scheme (WSRS) by coordinated operation of three large reservoirs in the mainstream. Here we evaluate the efficiency and sustainability of this manā€made experiment on delta evolution. The impulsive delivery of muds and sands, within ~20 day intervals (averaged duration of the WSRS), did indeed move the present Yellow River delta from a destructive phase to an accretion phase. With continuous scouring, however, the downstream riverbed erosion efficiency has decreased, due to coarsening of surface bed material sediment. Concomitantly, sediment delivery has decreased, resulting in the present delta once again entering an erosive (destructive) phase, since 2014. From a perspective of delta restoration, the WSRS on the Yellow River is effective but potentially unsustainable. Restoring delta resilience necessitates an enhanced, coordinated effort, relying upon new sciences advances, rather than simply assuming channel scour will address the sediment deficit of the delta.en_US
dc.identifier.citationWu, Xiao, Bi, Naishuang, Syvitski, Jaia, et al.. "Can Reservoir Regulation Along the Yellow River Be a Sustainable Way to Save a Sinking Delta?." <i>Earth's Future,</i> 8, no. 11 (2020) Wiley: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EF001587.en_US
dc.identifier.digital2020EF001587en_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1029/2020EF001587en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/109720en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherWileyen_US
dc.rightsThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.en_US
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_US
dc.titleCan Reservoir Regulation Along the Yellow River Be a Sustainable Way to Save a Sinking Delta?en_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.type.dcmiTexten_US
dc.type.publicationpublisher versionen_US
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