Enhanced NSGA-II algorithm based on novel hybrid crossover operator to optimise water supply and ecology of Fenhe reservoir operation.

Reservoir-operation optimisation is a crucial aspect of water-resource development and sustainable water process management. This study addresses bi-objective optimisation problems by proposing a novel crossover evolution operator, known as the hybrid simulated binary and improved arithmetic crossover (SBAX) operator, based on the simulated binary cross (SBX) and arithmetic crossover operators, and applies it to the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithms-II (NSGA-II) algorithm to improve the algorithm. In particular, the arithmetic crossover operator can obtain an optimal solution more precisely within the solution space, whereas the SBX operator can explore a broader range of potential high-quality solutions.

A novel index for vegetation drought assessment based on plant water metabolism and balance under vegetation restoration on the Loess Plateau.

Vegetation is vital to the ecosystem, contributing to the global carbon balance, but susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Monitoring vegetation drought remains challenging due to the lack of widely accepted drought indices. This study focused on vegetation, and simulated the vegetation suitable water demand and soil available water supply (calculated by Remote-sensing-based Water Balance Assessment Tool model).

Virtual water output intensifies the water scarcity in Northwest China: Current situation, problem analysis and countermeasures.

With 80% water resources in the south and 65% arable land in the north, China is facing a rigorous challenge due to the spatial mismatch between water distribution and food & energy production to make a balanced development of economy and ecosystem. In the past decades, the northwest has played a prominent role in maintaining national food and energy security. However, the lack of water resources in this region poses a great threat to sustainable development.

The spatial and temporal evolution of the actual evapotranspiration based on the remote sensing method in the Loess Plateau.

Due to the joint impact of climate change and human activities, vegetation cover area in Loess Plateau has been tremendously improved. However, vegetation restoration will lead to high water use, which might pose a great threat to the water sustainability of regional ecosystems. In order to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of water consumption, this study estimated the actual evapotranspiration (AET) based on the SEBAL model.

Water stress assessment integrated with virtual water trade and physical transfer water: A case study of Beijing, China.

With the increase in population and economic development, urban water demand has increased significantly over the past decades, and physical transfer water (i.e., freshwater transported from water source regions to water intake regions through channels or pipelines) and virtual water (i.

Drought-Induced Carbon and Water Use Efficiency Responses in Dryland Vegetation of Northern China.

Given the context of global warming and the increasing frequency of extreme climate events, concerns have been raised by scientists, government, and the public regarding drought occurrence and its impacts, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. In this paper, the drought conditions for the forest and grassland areas in the northern region of China were identified based on 12 years of satellite-based Drought Severity Index (DSI) data. The impact of drought on dryland vegetation in terms of carbon use efficiency (CUE) and water use efficiency (WUE) were also investigated by exploring their correlations with DSI.

Combination and placement of sustainable drainage system devices based on zero-one integer programming and schemes sampling.

The combination and placement of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) devices is important for system design, but differing site characteristics and device properties can make this a challenging task. Opinion-based and optimization-based approaches have the disadvantages of subjectivity and excessive computational burden respectively. This paper presents a new framework for SuDS device combination and placement in system design.

Study on Water Suitability of Apple Plantations in the Loess Plateau under Climate Change.

With the implementation of the Grain for Green Project, the apple plantation area is increasing in Loess Plateau. However, due to severe water scarcity, the sustainability of apple tree growth is threatened. In this paper, we used meteorological data (1990⁻2013) and forecasted climate data (2019⁻2050) to estimate water demand and establish a water suitability model to study the water balance between available water and water consumption of the apple trees.

The impacts of land conversion and management measures on the grassland net primary productivity over the Loess Plateau, Northern China.

In the 1990s, the Chinese government began implementation of a series of national-scale restoration programs to combat environmental degradation. As one of most important arid and semiarid regions of China, the Loess Plateau has attracted attention related to the effectiveness of these initiatives. The present study analyzed land use and cover change (LUCC) of the grassland in the Loess Plateau and the consequent change in net primary productivity (NPP) based on a consecutive land use data derived from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative land cover maps and the CASA (Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach) model driven by MODIS-NDVI data.

Temporal and spatial evolution of the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) in the Loess Plateau under climate change from 2001 to 2050.

Loess Plateau has great uncertainty on drought occurrence due to climate change. This paper analyzes the evolution of precipitation, potential evapotranspiration and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) based on the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) data and regional downscaling model (RegCM4.0).

Actual ET modelling based on the Budyko framework and the sustainability of vegetation water use in the loess plateau.

Jointly influenced by the natural factors and the artificial protection measures, the ecological environment of Loess Plateau has been significantly improved in recent years, but which has already brought about some water-related problems. To maintain the balance between precipitation and water consumption is an important foundation for sustainable development of the ecology remediation. This study used Budyko Framework to simulate the actual water consumption of 161 sub-basins from 1990 to 2014.