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Author(s): Holly Chik

China’s Yellow River flooded 10 times more often in past millennium. New study finds out why

Source(s): South China Morning Post
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  • Human interference caused 80 per cent of increased flooding in river known as the ‘sorrow of China’, study of 12,000 years of data shows
  • Structural flood control may boost long-term hazards, lead author says, urging sustainable river management through soil and water conservation

[...]

Flooding in China’s Yellow River became 10 times more frequent in the last 1,000 years than in several previous millennia, and it cannot be blamed on climate change, a new study has shown.

Around 80 per cent of the increased frequency was caused by human interference that transformed and destabilised the river, according to an analysis of 12,000 years’ worth of data by scientists in China and the US.

Modifications that increased flood risk included clearing vegetation for agriculture in the Loess Plateau, which is the main water and sediment source of the lower Yellow River, and building embankments downstream, according to the study published on Thursday in peer-reviewed journal Science Advances.

[...]

In contemporary China, central government soil and water conservation projects since the 1990s, such as the “Grain for Green” and “Gully Land Consolidation” programmes, had substantially reduced flood frequency, Yu said.

[...]

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Hazards Flood
Themes Disaster risk management Risk identification and assessment
Country and region China

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