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Advances in Water Resources Engineering pp 1–40Cite as

Watershed Sediment Dynamics and Modeling: A Watershed Modeling System for Yellow River

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Part of the book series: Handbook of Environmental Engineering ((HEE,volume 14))

Abstract

Soil erosion is the root cause of environmental and ecological degradation in the Loess Plateau of the Yellow River. Watershed sediment dynamics was fully analyzed here, and a physically based, distributed, and continuous erosion model at the watershed scale, named the Digital Yellow River Integrated Model (DYRIM), was developed. The framework, the key supporting techniques, and the formulation for natural processes were described. The physical processes of sediment yield and transport in the Loess Plateau are divided into three subprocesses, including the water yield and soil erosion on hillslopes, gravitational erosion in gullies, and hyperconcentrated flow routing in channels. For each subprocess, a physically based simulation model was developed and embedded into the whole model system. The model system was applied to simulate the sediment yield and transport in several typical years in different watersheds of the Yellow River, and the simulation results indicated that this model system is capable of simulating the physical processes of sediment yield and transport in a large-scale watershed.

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Abbreviations

a and b :

Coefficients that can be obtained from experiments

a u and b u :

Matric potential coefficients of the topsoil

B :

Width of the hillslope, m

BC:

Left-child code of PC

C :

Wave velocity coefficient

c :

Nominal total cohesive strength, Pa

c′:

Cohesive strength of the saturated soil, Pa

C h :

Wave velocity coefficient of the h-form diffusive wave equation

C l :

A coefficient that is related to the physicochemical property of the soil

E :

Erosion rate of a hillslope, kg/s

E can :

Evaporation rate of canopy water, m/s

E u :

Evaporation rate of topsoil water, m/s

e x :

Soil erosion rate, kg/(m2s)

F D :

The sliding force

F R :

The sliding resistance

GC:

Right-child code of PC

h :

Runoff depth, m

h u :

Thickness of the topsoil layer, m

Int():

The operation of rounding

J :

Slope of the hillslope

k :

Coefficient related to the erodibility of the surface soil

K zus :

Saturated vertical hydraulic conductivity of the topsoil, m/s

L f :

The length of the failure plane

n :

Manning’s coefficient

P :

Rainfall intensity, m/s

P n :

Net rainfall intensity, m/s

PC:

Parent node code

Q gd :

Subsoil drainage, m3/s

Q gu :

Topsoil drainage, m3/s

q l :

Runoff per meter width at the bottom of the hillslope, m2/s

q zd :

Infiltration rate from the topsoil to subsoil, m/s

q zu :

Infiltration rate of land surface, m/s

S and S 0 :

Sediment concentrations, kg/m3

S * and S 0* :

Sediment transport capacities of the outlet and inlet cross-sections, kg/m3

S 0′:

Bed slope

S can :

Canopy storage, m

t :

Time, s

v :

Velocity of the water flow, m/s

v s :

Velocity of particles, m/s

w :

The water content

W d :

Water storage of subsoil, m3

W u :

Water storage of the topsoil, m3

α :

Coefficient of saturation recovery

β :

The index related to the eroding efficiency of runoff

β k :

Determined by the grain composition of the soil

γ :

Delayed ratio of the sediment from the water flow, which is less than 1

η :

A coefficient which is 0.7–1.0 for the rising limb and 0 for the receding limb

θ:

The angle of the sliding face

θ us :

Saturated volumetric water content of the topsoil, m3/m3

Θ x :

The Shields parameter denoting the strength of flow at the position x

ρ m :

Density of sediment laden flow, kg/m3

ρ s :

Density of sediment particles, kg/m3

σ :

Normal stress, Pa

τ :

Shear stress of the water flow, Pa

τ c :

Incipient shear stress, Pa

τ′:

Additional cohesive strength, Pa

φ :

Internal friction angle, which is assumed to be invariant with water content

ω s :

Settling velocity of sediment particles, m/s

(1 − θ us) ⋅ Dρ s :

Mass of particles per layer per square meter

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering and Material Science of the NSFC, State Key Lab of Hydroscience & Engineering, Tsinghua University, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100084, Beijing, China

    Guangqian Wang PhD

  2. State Key Lab of Hydroscience & Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China

    Xudong Fu PhD

  3. State Key Lab of Hydroscience & Engineering, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China

    Haiyun Shi PhD & Tiejian Li PhD

Authors
  1. Guangqian Wang PhD
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  2. Xudong Fu PhD
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  3. Haiyun Shi PhD
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  4. Tiejian Li PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guangqian Wang PhD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

    Chih Ted Yang

  2. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Lawrence K. Wang

Glossary

Binary tree

In computer science, a binary tree is a tree data structure in which each node has at the most two children (referred to as the left child and the right child).

Channel

A passage along which the water flows.

Database

An organized collection of data.

Drainage network

A network of channels and drains constructed on marshy or excessively wet land.

Erosion

The process by which the soil and rock are removed from the Earth’s surface by exogenic processes such as wind or water flow, and then transported and deposited in other locations.

Geographic information system

A system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data.

Gravitational erosion

A type of degradation resulting from the earth’s downward pull.

Gully

A long, narrow valley with steep sides.

Hillslope

The sloping side of a hill.

Hydrological station

An agency that observes and studies the hydrologic conditions of bodies of water and territories.

Hyperconcentrated flow

A two-phase flowing mixture of water and sediment in a channel, which has properties intermediate between fluvial flow and debris flow.

Leaf area index

A dimensionless quantity that characterizes plant canopies.

Meteorological station

A facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate.

Parallel computing

A form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently.

Potential evaporation

The amount of evaporation that would occur if a sufficient water source was available.

Precipitation

The water that falls from the clouds towards the ground, especially as rain or snow.

Remote Sensing

The acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object and thus in contrast to in situ observation.

Sediment transport

The movement of solid particles (sediment), typically due to a combination of gravity acting on the sediment, and/or the movement of the fluid in which the sediment is entrained.

Watershed

The area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place; Land area that drains to a common waterway, such as a stream, lake, estuary, wetland, or ultimately the ocean.

Watershed decomposition

The process by which the watershed is broken down into smaller sub-watersheds.

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Wang, G., Fu, X., Shi, H., Li, T. (2015). Watershed Sediment Dynamics and Modeling: A Watershed Modeling System for Yellow River. In: Yang, C., Wang, L. (eds) Advances in Water Resources Engineering. Handbook of Environmental Engineering, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11023-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11023-3_1

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