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Arid Land Geography ›› 2022, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (3): 774-785.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2021.296

• Hydrology and Water Resources • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Remote sensing monitoring of ecological water conveyance and benefits evaluation of agricultural water-saving in arid basin without observation station

PAN Zihao1(),YANG Shengtian1,LOU Hezhen1(),YU Jingjie2,3,WANG Zhongjing4,ZHANG Jun1   

  1. 1. College of Water Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
    2. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    4. State Key Laboratory of Hydro-Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • Received:2021-06-29 Revised:2021-09-09 Online:2022-05-25 Published:2022-05-31
  • Contact: Hezhen LOU E-mail:202031470004@mail.bnu.edu.cn;louhezhen@bnu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Ecological water conveyance and agricultural water-saving are known to be important means to achieve sustainable development in inland arid basins. Due to the scarcity of hydrological stations, the monitoring and benefit evaluation of ecological water conveyance and agricultural water-saving are limited. Thus, in this study, we will examine the lower reaches of the Shule River Basin in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, China. First, monthly remote sensing monitoring of ecological water conveyance from 2016 to 2020 was performed using remote sensing hydrological stations and Google Earth Engine (GEE). The benefits of ecological water conveyance and agricultural water-saving are then evaluated in conjunction with evapotranspiration and land cover types. Finally, the balance between ecological water conveyance and agricultural water-saving is analyzed in terms of water resources. The results show that (1) the remote sensing hydrological station and GEE can provide reliable data support for remote sensing monitoring of ecological water conveyance and evaluating water-saving benefits of agriculture. (2) From 2017 to 2020, ecological water conveyance can provide an average of 2.50×108 m3 ecological water per year to the downstream wetland and river, of which 30.06% reaches the downstream wetland and 18.47% is used by the vegetation around the downstream river, resulting in a significant increase in vegetation area of 112.25 km2. (3) From 2017 to 2020, agricultural water-saving can effectively reduce the evapotranspiration of cultivated land by an average of 0.395×108 m per year, assuming that arable land area continues to grow. The decrease in evapotranspiration on cultivated land accounted for 14.22% of the ecological water conveyance capacity, thus effectively alleviating the problem of agricultural water occupying ecological water in the inland arid basin. This study proposes a novel approach for monitoring ecological water conveyance and evaluating agricultural water-saving benefits in the inland drought lack station basin via remote sensing, with the goal of providing theoretical support for the implementation of ecological water conveyance and agricultural water-saving projects in the future.

Key words: ecological water conveyance, agricultural water-saving, inland arid basin, remote sensing hydrological station, Google Earth Engine (GEE)