Research papersModelling water quality and quantity with the influence of inter-basin water diversion projects and cascade reservoirs in the Middle-lower Hanjiang River

- A 1D quantity-quality model was built for water projects influences assessment.
- The long-term time series from with four hydrological schemas were collected.
- The South-to-North Water Diversion Project brings adverse effects.
- The Yangtze-Hanjiang Water Diversion Project has limited compensation.
- The cascade reservoirs tremendously change the flow regimes of Hanjiang River.

The effects of inter-basin water diversion projects and cascade reservoirs are typically complex and challenging, as the uncertain temporal-spatial variation of both water quality and quantity. The purpose of this paper is to propose a coupled 1D hydrodynamic model with water-quality model to analyze the effects of current and future inter-basin water diversion projects, i.e., South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWD) and Yangtze-Hanjiang Water Diversion Project (YHWD), and cascade reservoirs (CRS) on water quantity and quality in the middle-lower Hanjiang River. Considering water use and pollution contribution, the middle-lower Hanjaing River basin is generalized and divided into 18 land use units with tributaries, reservoirs and water exchanges. Each unit is considered with the processes of lateral inflow, point and non-point pollution loads, irrigation return flow, and stream-aquifer exchanges in the model. The long-term time series from 1956 to 1998 of water quality and quantity with four engineering scenarios is collected. The validation of results shows that the relative errors between the simulated and observed values at certain control sections are within 5% for water levels and 20% for water quality. The water level will be decreased by 0.38-0.65 m (decreasing rate 0.44-2.68%), the annual runoff will be significantly decreased over 4 billion m3 and the water quality will be changed after the SNWD. As a compensation project, the YHWD partly offsets the negative effects of the SNWD in water flow rate, but at the same time it rises the water level and reduces the flow velocity. This, together with the effect of cascade reservoirs, leads to water quality concentration increasing and deteriorating to Grade IV of the Chinese Surface Water Quality Criteria. The water resource reduction and water quality problems in the Middle-lower Hanjiang River require attention after these projects.

Graphical Abstract176