Improving China’s Yellow River: Why Business and Government Need to Work Together

The Yellow River has played a critical role in the growth and prosperity of Chinese civilization for thousands of years. But today, the Yellow and the people who depend on it face severe challenges. Stress of limited water resources, pollution, and flooding pose significant risks to communities and businesses that rely on the river. As these stresses grow, China’s water managers and users face the daunting challenge of implementing policies that balance economy, ecology, and community. 

At the Yellow River Commission’s annual Forum in September, water experts from government, research institutes, the private sector, and NGOs gathered to discuss problems facing the Yellow and potential solutions for better water management. One sentiment that came through loud and clear is that the only way to improve the Yellow is for government and business to collaborate—not clash.

The Role of Government: Set a Clear Agenda

At the Forum, it was clear that the relationship between Chinese companies and government is evolving when it comes to water issues. The government is dealing with the complex and pressing challenge of water resource management by setting ambitious goals, adopting a set of “three red lines” in its 2011 No.1 Policy document for achieving water security. 

Full paper can be read from World Resources Institue website at: http://www.wri.org/blog/2012/10/improving-china%E2%80%99s-yellow-river-why-business-and-government-need-work-together.

Credit: World Resources Institute, 10 G Street NE Suite 800, Washington, DC 20002, USA

The Yellow River: a History of China’s Water Crisis

During the hot, dry month of August 1992 the farmers of Baishan village in Hebei province and Panyang village in Henan came to blows. Residents from each village hurled insults and rudimentary explosives at the other across the Zhang River – the river that feeds the Red Flag Canal Irrigation System and forms the border between the two provinces. 

Centuries of state investment in a massive system of dykes along the Yellow River has left China’s water planners with a difficult legacy today (Image by Teruhiro Kataoka)

The emotions of that afternoon were fuelled by events of the previous night when 70 Baishan villagers had waded into the river to build a barrage to divert water to their fields. Upon hearing of the treachery, Panyang villagers assembled to drive the dam-builders away.  

Two days later, Baishan villagers crossed the river to the Henan side and dynamited an irrigation canal that watered Panyang’s fields.    

Struggles over water are not new in China or around the world.  But these struggles have their own unique historical and cultural contexts. Climate, geography, and social forces all combined to escalate tensions over water resources on the North China Plain during the 1990s.   

In the early 1960s when the Red Flag Canal was constructed water was plentiful. The canal was a showpiece of Chinese hydraulic engineering that was begun during the Great Leap Forward, and celebrated as an exemplar of massive surface water irrigation development.  But after the 1980s, upstream withdrawals for irrigation and local industry dramatically expanded competition for water downstream.  

Full article can be read from here (中外对话): https://www.chinadialogue.net/culture/8134-The-Yellow-River-a-history-of-China-s-water-crisis/en.

Effect of Perennial Sediment Regulation in Xiaolangdi Reservoir on Reduction of Deposition in the Lower Yellow River

Article in International Journal of Sediment Research 12(2) · August 1997

Full text can be found at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262935877_Effect_of_Perennial_Sediment_Regulation_in_Xiaolangdi_Reservoir_on_Reduction_of_Deposition_in_the_Lower_Yellow_River.

New Frontiers in Integrated Flood Simulation, Flood Mapping and Consequence Analysis

[Presentation at Air Worldwide San Franciso office on Apr 12, 2013]

The level of damage of flood events does not solely depend on exposure to flood waters. Vulnerabilities due to various socio-economic factors such as population at risk, public awareness, and the presence of early warning systems, etc. should also be taken into account. Federal and state agencies, watershed management coalitions, insurance companies, need reliable decision support system to evaluate flood risk, to plan and design flood damage assessment and mitigation systems. In current practice, flood damage evaluations are generally carried out based on results obtained from one-dimensional (1D) numerical simulations. In some cases, however, 1D simulation is not able to accurately capture the dynamics of the flood events. This presentation describes a decision support system, which is based on 2D flood simulation results. The 2D computational results are complemented with information from various resources, such as census block layer, detailed survey data, and remote sensing images, to estimate loss-of-life and direct damages (meso or micro scale) to property under uncertainty. Flood damage calculations consider damages to residential, commercial and industrial buildings in urban areas, and damages to crops in rural areas. The decision support system takes advantage of fast raster layer operations in a GIS platform to generate flood hazard maps based on various user-defined criteria. Monte Carlo method based on an event tree analysis is introduced to account for uncertainties in various parameters. Case studies illustrate the uses of the proposed decision support system. The results show that the proposed decision support system allows stakeholders to have a better appreciation of the consequences of the flood. It can also be used for planning, design and evaluation of future flood mitigation measures.

Louisiana Flood in August 2016 - Flood Footprints in Baton Rouge, LA

The largest flood loss driver of 2016 was the Louisiana flood in August 2016.  With NOAA estimating $10B in economic loss, the meteorological statistics from this event were nothing short of staggering.  Baton Rouge, LA registered 26.97” of rain in August, with over 20” falling in a 48 hour period; the monthly rainfall total broke the prior record of 23.73” in May 1907.  Moreover, 20” in a 48 hour period registered well in excess of a 1,000 (500?) year period recurrence interval for this region.  The impacts were widespread and historic, with river levels cresting at record heights, including the Amite River at Denham Springs cresting at 46.2’, over 5 feet higher than the prior record in April 1983.  

I analyzed this event due to the wide ranging impacts. Based on a 5 by 5 meter resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with lots of city level of details such as buildings and highways, JLT Re performed the 4-day rainfall-runoff simulations and obtained the flood footprint by using Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS), United States Army Corps of Engineers. As it can be seen from the exhibit below, not only does the resulting map show the inundation extents (blue), but it also illustrates the spatially varied flood depth (in feet), which is a key factor to determine the flood severity, as well as the exposure and vulnerability analysis. Many locations (yellow dots) shown as being inundated during this event, such as Louisiana State University (LSU) Campus, I-10/I-12 from LA 73 (Prairieville, LA)  to Siegen Lane, US 190 in Merrydale, etc, have all been verified with field photos taken by Civil Air Patrol. JLT Re also validated the result with FEMA hazard GIS layer (light red) published one month later after the event, and found out they are in very good agreement.

The Forming Conditions of Alluvial River Channel Patterns

[Abstract] In the normal fluvial process, the river channel is determined by river flows while the movement of river flow is contained by river channels. The relationship between the river morphology and its bend curvature shows that rivers with large bend curvatures always have narrow and deep channels and those with shallow and wide channels are always straight. The plan form of a river reaches is determined by the cross-sectional morphology. A meandering river reach may be developed under various water-sediment conditions as long as the narrow and deep channels are formed.

To read the full technical paper, please read at my researchgate websitie:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262911265_The_Forming_Conditions_of_Alluvial_River_Channel_Patterns.

Successful Reconstruction of 1993 Great Mississippi River Flood Footprint

The 1993 Midwest flood was one of the most significant and damaging natural disasters ever to hit the United States. Damages totaled $15 billion, 50 people died, hundreds of levees failed, and thousands of people were evacuated, some for months. The flood was unusual in the magnitude of the crests, the number of record crests, the large area impacted, and the length of the time the flood was an issue. The paper discusses some details of the flood, the forecasting procedures utilized by the National Weather Service and the precipitation events which caused the flood.

From May through September of 1993, major and/or record flooding occurred across North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Fifty flood deaths occurred, and damages approached $15 billion. Hundreds of levees failed along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. The magnitude and severity of this flood event was simply over-whelming, and it ranks as one of the greatest natural disasters ever to hit the United States. Approximately 600 river forecast points in the Midwestern United States were above flood stage at the same time. Nearly 150 major rivers and tributaries were affected. It was certainly the largest and most significant flood event ever to occur in the United States (Fig. 1).

A Depth Grid is GIS format data that represents the extent of riverine flooding or coastal storm surge inundation and the depth of water at a given location. Depth Grids are commonly delivered in raster ESRI GRID format, each pixel contains a value representing potential water depth. Factors that contribute to the resolution or level of detail displayed by a depth grid are twofold. These factors include resolution of your terrain data, and availability of flood surface elevation information.

Depth Grid accuracy is dependent on the resolution of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) or terrain data used during the processing of a Depth Grid. Secondly, the method used for collecting information on the elevation of your flood surface may vary. Common methods for generating flood surface information are: the use of High Water Mark (HWM) data, the use of BFE (Base Flood Elevation) cross sections, or local H&H (Hydrology and Hydraulics) models. Determining the resolution requirements for a Depth Grid is reliant on the type of analyses that will be conducted with the processed Depth Grid. For example, when site specific (structure by structure) analyses are needed for loss estimation, higher resolution elevation datasets are more appropriate, whereas if to gain a general idea of flood extent is the intent, a lower resolution elevation dataset would be adequate.

Efficient Sediment Transport Theory of the Hyperconcentrated Flow in the Lower Yellow River

To read full paper, please visit my researchgate webisite at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262911185_Efficient_Sediment_Transport_Theory_of_the_Hyperconcentrated_Flow_in_the_Lower_Yellow_River.,