Effects of the on-going South to North Water Diversion Project on Evaporation over North China Region Details

Abstract

To alleviate the profound shortage of water resources in the northern China, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP) has been undertaken since 2002. The goal of the project is to generate three man-made south-to-north rivers. This would undoubtedly change the regional land surface water balance. The amount of water diverted from South to North would be about 30% of the annual total discharge of the three major rivers, the Yellow River, the Hai River and the Huai River, in the northern China. This would considerably change the regional evaporation. In this study, the VIC (Variable Infiltration Capacity) hydrologic model is applied to simulate the hydrologic processes over the four China basins which are involved in the SNWDP. Then, the diverted water into the northern China are distributed over the related areas according to the different water usage purposes, and the amount of water for the irrigation is mainly considered for influencing the evaporation. The winter wheat and summer maize are taken as two main crops in the northern China, and their irrigation periods are accordingly chosen. The results of the evaporation changes due to the project are then obtained and will be presented.