Abstract
The Yellow River is the third longest river in Asia and the sixth longest river in the world. The Upper Yellow River lies at the margins of and atop the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, the highest plateau in the world with an average elevation of 4000 m above sea level and an area of about 2.6 million km2. This area contributes about 56 % of the total run-off, but only 10 % of sediment load of the whole river basin. The river has a strong monsoon-driven seasonality in discharge, with around 60 % of annual run-off and 80 % of annual sediment discharge occurring during the flood season (June-September, especially July). Other than the impacts of a small (but increasing) number of dams along the trunk stream and tributaries close to the plateau margin, the flow regime of the Upper Yellow River is largely unregulated. Rivers of the Upper Yellow River Basin are globally significant examples of river response to tectonic uplift and incision. This chapter documents a ‘journey along the Upper Yellow River’, providing an account of river diversity and assessing controls upon the pattern of river types. Valley gradient and confinement are the primary controls on river diversity and evolution in this area. Adjacent to the Qinghai–Gansu border, tectonic uplift and climate changes have induced river bed incision via knickpoint retreat, cutting back through bedrock gorges and basin fills. An elevation (climate) induced gradient of riparian vegetation cover exerts a critical control upon the pattern of channel planform types along the river.
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Acknowledgments
Research in this chapter was conducted under the auspices of the Three Brothers (Plus) project. Funding from the three institutions (The University of Auckland, Qinghai University and Tsinghua University) is gratefully acknowledged. The work was supported by grants from the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University, Ministry of Education of China (IRT13074) and International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China, MOST (2011DFG93160). This work also benefitted from two travel/workshop grants from NZ Education.
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Brierley, G.J., Yu, Ga., Li, Z. (2016). Geomorphic Diversity of Rivers in the Upper Yellow River Basin. In: Brierley, G., Li, X., Cullum, C., Gao, J. (eds) Landscape and Ecosystem Diversity, Dynamics and Management in the Yellow River Source Zone. Springer Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30475-5_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30475-5_3
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