Hydroclimate Analysis of Severe Floods in China’s Poyang Lake Region (original) (raw)
Related papers
Flood frequency in China's Poyang Lake region: trends and teleconnections
International Journal of Climatology, 2006
Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province is the largest freshwater lake in China and is historically a region of significant floods. Annual events of peak lake stage and of severe floods have increased dramatically during the past few decades. This trend is related primarily to levee construction at the periphery of the lake and along the middle of the Changjiang (Yangtze River), which protects a large rural population. These levees reduce the area formerly available for floodwater storage resulting in higher lake stages during the summer flood season and catastrophic levee failures. The most severe floods in the Poyang Lake since 1950, and ranked in descending order of severity, occurred in 1998, 1995, 1954, 1983, 1992, 1973, and 1977. All of these floods occurred during or immediately following El Niño events, which are directly linked to rainfall in central China. The 2-year recurrence interval for maximum annual lake stage during El Niño years is 1.2 m higher than during non-El Niño years. The 10-year recurrence interval is 1.4 m higher during El Niño years than during non-El Niño years.
The changing patterns of floods in Poyang Lake, China: characteristics and explanations
Natural Hazards, 2014
Poyang Lake, directly connected with the Yangtze River, is one of the most frequently flooded areas in China. The frequent large floods have caused huge damages to the environment and economy and threatened the life of approximately 10 million people. Understanding the changing characteristics of floods as well as the affecting factors is an important prerequisite of flood disaster prevention and mitigation. In this study, the characteristics of historical floods in Poyang Lake were identified and examined based on several widely used indices and Mann-Kendall test. The study also analyzed the related driving forces and discussed their relationships with Poyang Lake floods. The results show that the floods in Poyang Lake mainly occurred in mid-and late July. The inter-annual variation of highest flood stages and duration showed a long-term increasing linear trend. Also, a slightly increasing linear trend in the timing of highest stages indicated the floods have occurred later and later during the last 60 years. At the decadal scale, the flood situations were most severe in 1990s while gentle in 2000s in terms of the occurrence frequency and average duration. The climate change was the primary influence factor for
Interactions of the Yangtze river flow and hydrologic processes of the Poyang Lake, China
Journal of Hydrology, 2007
Recently available hydrological data from Hukou station at the junction of the Poyang Lake with the Yangtze River along with other data from stations in the Poyang Lake basin have allowed further examination and understanding of the basin effect (basin discharge generated by rainfall) and the Yangtze River blocking effect on variations of the Poyang Lake level and floods at annual to decadal scales. Major results show that the basin effect has played a primary role influencing the level of Poyang Lake and development of severe floods, while the Yangtze River played a complementary role of blocking outflows from the lake. In most cases, only when the basin effect weakened did the river effect become large, a relationship indicating that the river's blocking effect diminishes when the lake level is high from receiving large amount of basin discharge, albeit a few exceptions to this relationship occurred when river flow also was elevated from receiving large rainfall discharges in upstream areas. Moreover, the basin effect has become stronger in the period 1960-2003 in accordance with the increase of warm season rainfall in the Poyang Lake basin. In particular, large increases of the basin's rainfall in the 1990s corresponded to the most severe floods (in 1998, 1995, and 1992) of the last 4 decades. The strong increase of warm season rainfall in the Poyang Lake basin in the 1990s is consistent with the recent southward shift of major warm season rain bands in eastern China. Results of this study provide a utility for improving predictions of the Poyang Lake level and floods, which affect a population of about 10 million. ª
River management, landuse change, and future flood risk in China's Poyang Lake region
2009
Abstract Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China covering 3800 km2 during the summer wet season. It drains into the Changjiang (Yangtze River) at its northern end through a narrow outlet. During the last half of the twentieth century (1949–1999) average annual maximum stage and number of severe flood events in China's Poyang Lake region increased significantly. There are two primary causes for this trend. One was increasing Changjiang stage, which is the most important determinant of Poyang Lake stage.
Analyses on Floods of 1998 in China
This paper describes the process and characteristics of the great floods occurred in the Changjiang River, the Nenjiang River and the Songhua River during 1998. The flood of the Changjiang River is compared with that of 1954, and the reason of higher water level under same discharge is analyzed in detail. Some considerations on countermeasures are discussed. A lot of data calculated in this paper are very useful for scientific research and practice on flood control.
Journal of Hydrology, 2015
In recent years, the Poyang Lake basin is in a prolonged drought which has placed immense pressure on the water resources utilization. In this paper, we explore the spatial and temporal distributions of extreme droughts in the Poyang Lake basin by using the methods of SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index) and EOF (Empirical Orthogonal Function) for the period of 1956-2009, which are influenced by regional precipitation anomalies and river-lake interaction due to water impounding of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD). The results show that: (1) the Poyang Lake basin experienced six extreme droughts during the past 60 years, which lead to decreases in streamflow from five tributary rivers down to the Poyang Lake. The droughts in the 1960s and the 2000s were the most serious ones. However, there was an increasing trend of streamflow in the upper and middle Yangtze in the 1960s, and a decreasing trend appeared in the 2000s. The decline of streamflow in the upper Yangtze reaches has lowered the water level of lower Yangtze River which has caused more outflow from the Poyang Lake to the Yangtze River; (2) the operation of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) has altered the seasonal pattern of flow regimes in the Poyang Lake and significantly reduced the water level in the lower Yangtze River during the TGD impounding period from late September to early November; and (3) the conjunction of extreme droughts in the Poyang Lake and the upper Yangtze reaches coincided with the impounding of the TGD is the main cause of the low water level in the Poyang Lake. Although the impact of the recent droughts in the Poyang Lake and upper Yangtze reaches has played a crucial role in the low water level of Poyang Lake, more attention should be paid to its sensitivity to the influence of the large dam-induced changes in the interaction between river and lake, particularly during impounding periods.
Atmospheric moisture budget and floods in the Yangtze River basin, China
Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 2009
In this paper, we explored the trends of the atmospheric moisture budget, precipitation, and streamflow in summer during 1961 to 2005 and possible correlations between them by using the linear regression method in the Yangtze River basin, China. The results indicate that: (1) increasing tendencies can be detected in the atmospheric moisture budget, precipitation and streamflow in the Yangtze River basin; however, the significant increasing trends occur only in the atmospheric moisture budget and precipitation in the middle and lower Yangtze River basin;
The 1998 Flood on the Yangtze, China
Natural Hazards, 2000
This paper examines the main causes ofthe 1998 flood on the Yangtze and addresses a numberof issues related to the exploitation of naturalresources and counter-measures to the flood hazard.The records show that both the amount of precipitationover the catchment and the floodwater discharge fromthe upper basin did not exceed the historical maximum,but water levels in the middle basin were recordedmuch
Precipitation patterns in flood season over China associated with the El Niño/Southern Osciliation
Chinese Geographical Science, 1997
The precipitation patterns in flood season over China associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are investigated, especially in the eastern China, using the rather long period rainfall data in this century. The results show that there were remarkable differences between the precipitation patterns in flood seasons of ENSO warm phase (El Niño year) and cold phase (La Niña year), as well as between the patterns in El Niño years and their following years. The most parts of China received below normal rainfall in flood season of the onset years of El Niño events, but the coastal area of Southeast China received above normal amounts. Comparatively, the most parts of China received above normal rainfall in flood season of the following years of El Niño events, but the eastern part of the reaches among the Huanghe (Yellow) River, the Huaihe River and the Haihe River, and the Northeast China received less. During ENSO cold phase, the reaches of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River and the North China received more amounts than normal rainfall in flood season of the onset years of La Niña events, and the other regions of China received less. In the following years of La Niña events, the coastal area of the Southeast China, the most part of the Northeast China and the regions between the Huanghe River and the Huaihe River received more precipitation during flood seasons, but the other parts received below normal precipitation.