Influence of Reservoir Operation on River Eco-hydrological Regime Variation

With the development of reservoir, river hydrological situation has undergone great changes. Liujiaxia and Longyangxia reservoir which all have great regulation ability were constructed in the upper reaches above Lanzhou station of the Yellow River. In view of the Indicator of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA), the Range of Variability Approach ( RVA ) is used to calculate the eco- hydrological characteristic values and analyze the influence of different reservoir operating modes on the variation of eco-hydrological characteristics of the Yellow River upstream. On the whole, the hydrologic regime at each station downstream of the Liujiaxia reservoir has changed obviously, especially that at Lanzhou station. The overall degree of hydrologic alteration with single reservoir (Liujiaxia) was 72. 64%, and the hydrologic alteration degree with two reservoirs joint operation was 78. 90%. Both of them were belong to high change. Also, after joint operation of Liujiaxia and Longyangxia reservoir, the flow in flood season significantly reduce and the number of high and low flow reversals increase, which would influence the living condition of aquatic organism in the Yellow River, and greatly endanger the aquatic species' reproduction.