Environmental Flows Assessment for the Lower Yellow River
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AN INTERNATIONAL WATERCENTRE PUBLICATION AN INTERNATIONAL WATERCENTRE PUBLICATION Environmental flows assessment for the Lower Yellow River Christopher Gippel, Xiaohui Jiang, Dan Zhang, Marcus Cooling, Greg Kerr, Paul Close, Shuangyan Jin, Lantao Li, Zhongjing Wang, Zhenzhen Ma, Ling Wang, Yangbo Sun, Hui Pang, Ruipeng Song, Feng Sun, Hongqi Shang, Robert Speed i Environmental flows assessment for the Lower Yellow River AN INTERNATIONAL WATERCENTRE PUBLICATION © Commonwealth of Australia 2012. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the publishers. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the International WaterCentre, PO Box 10907, Adelaide St, Brisbane QLD 4000. Online/print: ISBN: 978-1-921499-07-4 Environmental Flows Assessment for the Lower Yellow River. CJ Gippel1, X Jiang2, M Cooling3, G Kerr3, P Close4, S Jin2, L Li2, L Wang2, Y Sun2, H Pang2, R Song2, F Sun2, H Shang2 and R Speed5. 1 Fluvial Systems Pty Ltd, 2 Yellow River Conservancy Commisson, 3 Ecological Associates, 4 University of Western Australia, 5 Okeanos Pty Ltd. Published by the International WaterCentre Level 16, 333 Ann St Brisbane QLD 4000 Tel: 07 3123 7766 Email: [email protected] www.watercentre.org Date of publication: June 2012 An appropriate citation for this report is: CJ Gippel, X Jiang, M Cooling, G Kerr, P Close, S Jin, L Li, L Wang, Y Sun, H Pang, R Song, F Sun, H Shang and R Speed. 2012. Environmental Flows Assessment for the Lower Yellow River. International WaterCentre, Brisbane, Australia. Disclaimer This report is presented by the IWC for the purpose of informing discussion. It does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Governments of Australia and China, nor those of the IWC. Information contained in this report was correct at the time of printing and the IWC assumes no responsibilities for its accuracy. AusAID does not guarantee the accuracy, reliability, currency, or completeness of any information contained in the Material. Furthermore, AusAID accepts no legal liability whatsoever arising from any use of the Material. Users of the Material should exercise their own skill and care with respect to their use of the Material. This report is the result of work undertaken as part of the River Health and Environmental Flow in China Project, that was funded under the Australia-China Environment Development Partnership, an Australian Government AusAID initiative. Partners YELLOW RIVER CONSERVANCY COMMISSION ii Environmental flows assessment for the Lower Yellow River AN INTERNATIONAL WATERCENTRE PUBLICATION Introduction to this book This book is a product of the River Health and Environmental Flow in China Project, a project undertaken between 2009 and 2012 by the International WaterCentre together with the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Environmental Protection. The project formed part of the Australia-China Environment Development Partnership, a five- year program of work between the Australian and Chinese governments, funded by AusAID. The River Health and Environmental Flow in China Project involved studies in the Yellow River, Liao River and Pearl River basins. This book is one of a number of publications that have been produced which document this work. This book combines two reports on the Yellow River. Together, these reports describe the process of identifying environmental flow requirements for the lower Yellow River (the reach from Xiaolangdi Reservoir, the last major reservoir on the trunk stream, to the estuary). The first report – Sites, Assets, Issues and Objectives – describes the method for assessing environmental flows that was used in the study. The report documents existing information on environmental assets in the lower Yellow River, divides the river into reaches, and identifies a series of key ecological assets that are the focus on the study. The assets are primarily a number of wetlands and the delta. For each of those assets, environmental flow objectives were determined, based on the requirements of different species (e.g. fish, birds) and physical processes (e.g. geomorphology) at each key site. The second report – Ecohydraulic Modeling and Flow Recommendations – builds on the results of the first report. It describes a modeling process that was used to convert flow recommendations based on hydraulic criteria (i.e. depth of flow) into hydrologic criteria (i.e. a rate of flow). The report consolidates the multiple flow objectives into a set of flow recommendations for each reach of the river. 1 Environmental flows assessment for the Lower Yellow River AN INTERNATIONAL WATERCENTRE PUBLICATION Acronyms ACEDP Australia–China Environment Development Partnership ARI Average Recurrence Interval AusAID Australian Agency for International Development BBM Building Block Methodology BF Bankfull-flow score BI Baseflow Index BLRs Blood Lipid Regulators BOD5 Biochemical Oxygen Demand CITES Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species CITES COD Chemical Oxygen Demand CSDPC China State Development and Planning Commission CTF Cease to flow score DEHP Di (2-Ethylhexyl) Phthalate DIN Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen DO Dissolved Oxygen DTM Digital Terrain Model DWAF South African Department of Water, Agriculture and Forestry EN Endangered ENSM Ecological Niche Suitability Model EPA Environmental Protetion Agency GC Gaocun HF High-flow score HFF High-flow rate of fall score HFP High-flow pulse score HFR High-flow rate of rise score HYK Huayuankou IBA Important Bird Areas IFH Index of Flow Health IFIM In-stream Flow Incremental Methodology LF Low-flow score LFF Low-flow rate of fall score LFP Low-flow pulse score LFR Low-flow rate of rise score LJ Lijin LK Luokou MAF Mean Annual Flow MoA Ministry of Agriculture NFP National Forest Protection NSAIDs Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs OCO Oxygen Consuming Organics OCP Organochlorine Pesticides O/E Observed/expected PAE Phthalic Acid Esters PAH Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons PDO Pacific Decadal Oscillation SDR Sediment Delivery Ratio SK Sunkou SRP Soluble Reactive Phosphorus TN Total Nitrogen TP Total Phosphorous TSS Total Suspended Solids WSDR Water Sediment Discharge Regulation XLD Xiaolangdi YRCC Yellow River Conservancy Commission VU Vulnerable 2 Environmental flows assessment for the Lower Yellow River AN INTERNATIONAL WATERCENTRE PUBLICATION Contents Introduction to this book .................................................................................................................................1 Acronyms........................................................................................................................................................2 Site, Assets, Issues and Objectives 7 Executive Summary........................................................................................................................................8 Chapter 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................10 1.1 Background to this study ..........................................................................................................................................10 1.2 Definition of environmental flows ..............................................................................................................................10 1.3 Environmental flow assessment method .................................................................................................................. 11 1.4 Objectives of this report ............................................................................................................................................14 Chapter 2. Site and Assets ...........................................................................................................................15 2.1 Yellow River Basin ....................................................................................................................................................15 2.2 Lower Yellow River ...................................................................................................................................................16 2.2.1 Basic physical and social characteristics ......................................................................................................16 2.2.2 Ecological assets ..........................................................................................................................................17 2.2.3 Reaches and sites for assessment ...............................................................................................................22 Chapter 3. Environmental Flows Issues and River Management Policy Framework ...................................24 3.1 Flow-related issues affecting river health .................................................................................................................24 3.2 Yellow River management policy framework ............................................................................................................25 3.3 Objective-setting process for environmental flows ...................................................................................................26 Chapter 4. Previous Environmental Flows Assessment Work ......................................................................27 4.1 Legislative