Eco-Hydrological Requirements in Arid and Semiarid Regions: Case Study of the Yellow River in China

Abstract

The eco-hydrological requirements of a river are related to the health of the river. In recent years, changing climate and intensifying human activities have further aggravated water problems in the Yellow River. Considering hydrological changes, this study addressed the ecological water requirements of the Yellow River basin, wherein the threshold ecological water requirement corresponded to the streamflow with the largest occurrence probability determined by the Pearson Type III distribution. Instream flow ± one standard deviation was adopted as the water resource management target and abrupt changes in streamflow were detected by using the Mann-Whitney