The water resources assessment based on resource exergy for the mainstream Yellow River

Based on the resource exergy theory, a unified exergetic index is proposed to assess both the quantity and quality of the water of the mainstream Yellow River, thus verifying the real available quantity of the river water in an ecological thermodynamics view. The chemical exergy, thermal exergy, potential exergy and sediment exergy of the river water as partial exergies are, respectively, calculated with the field river water intake data of the mainstream Yellow River. Exergetic potential is also defined to describe different working capacities of the river water along the mainstream. Finally, the temporal and spatial variation of the water resources of the mainstream Yellow River is illuminated with the proposed exergetic measure.