| Title: | Effects of the "Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland Program" on the water budget of the Jinghe River Catchment in China |
| Authors: | Qiu, G.Y., J. Yin, F. Tian and S. Geng |
| Year: | 2011 |
| Journal: | Journal of Environmental Quality |
| Volume (Issue): | 40(6) |
| Pages: | 1745-1755 |
| Article ID: | |
| DOI: | 10.2134/jeq2010.0263 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | land use change assessment |
| Secondary Application Category: | hydrologic assessment |
| Watershed Description: | 45,421 km^2 Jinghe River, located in central China. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | In 1999 China adopted the “Conversion of Cropland to Forest
and Grassland Program” (CCFGP), a nationwide ecological
recovery program, to minimize wide-scale soil erosion and
vegetation degradation in China, as well as to improve
water budgeting results. In the 10 yr since implementation,
the CCFGP has resulted in the recovery and reforestation
of >100,000 km^2 of cropland and bare land, though the
quantitative eff ect of this program on catchment water budget
is not entirely clear. Th erefore, we used the Soil and Water
Assessment Tool to evaluate and quantify the eff ects of the
CCFGP on the water budget of the Jinghe River catchment,
a tributary of the Yellow River covering the central region of
the Loess Plateau. Our results indicated that precipitation had
dropped by 12.0% from the 1970s (611.6 mm) to the 2000s
(538 mm) and that there was a corresponding 25.2% decrease
in humidity index from 0.48 to 0.36. Before the CCFGP’s
implementation, forest and grassland had been decreasing,
while bare land, cropland, and shrub land had been increasing.
After the implementation of the CCFGP, the opposite trend
was observed. Moreover, streamfl ow increased by about 15 and
20% for the upstream and middle stream subbasins, respectively,
while soil water content also showed an obvious increase. Over
the same period, evapotranspiration decreased by 5.2 and
13.5 mm and runoff decreased by 37.5 and 38.6% in the two
subbasins. Th e same trends were obtained in the downstream
subbasin, where changes were even greater. As a result of the
reduced runoff and evapotranspiration, utilization of water
resources was more effi cient and ecological environment was
improved under the CCFGP policy. Our results indicate the
CCFGP resulted in a favorable ecological impact and should
therefore be maintained. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | |