Author(s): Bojun Liu; Yaqiang Zhang; Kefei Li
Linked Author(s): Bojun Liu
Keywords: Ecological drought concept assessment levels rating Yellow River Estuary
Abstract: The decrease of precipitation runoff and increase of human water demand aggravate the water shortage situation of regional ecosystems, thus affecting the regional water and land ecosystems and causing ecological drought, river cutoff, water pollution, decline of wetland function, reduction of biodiversity, loss of land animal and plant function, and so on. The clarification of the concept of ecological drought for effective evaluation of regional ecological drought degree has become an urgent important scientific issue to be resolved. Therefore, in this paper, the typical region of the Yellow River estuary was studied for the definition of the concept and connotation of ecological drought. Based on the representative monitoring and early-warning indices to ecological drought, the evaluation method and classification standard of regional ecological drought were proposed. The regional ecological drought was divided into four levels: Ⅰ (Severe), Ⅱ (General), Ⅲ (Weak), and Ⅳ (None). The research results can be technically beneficial for the improving of ecological drought prevention in similar river estuary area.
Year: 2025