[Spatio-temporal variation of water yield and its response to precipitation and land use change in the Yellow River...

Yellow River Basin is an important water conservation and ecological barrier area, the study of water supply service in which is of great significance to the high-quality development and ecological environment protection. Based on the Invest InVEST model and the method of scenario analysis, we analyzed the temporal and spatial patterns of water yield in the Yellow River Basin in recent 20 years (1995-2015) with land use and cover, meteorological and soil data as inputs. We examined the impacts of precipitation change and land use change on water yield and their impacts on water yield. The results showed that water yield depth had average growth of 24.34 mm from 1995 to 2015. The high water yield area located in the west and southwest, and the low water yield area located in the northwest. The change of deep spatial pattern was not evident. Among the three grade basins in the Yellow River Basin, the river basin above Longyangxia, with the highest water yield of about 11.7 billion m³·a^-1, was the main water yield area of the Yellow River Basin. The river basin from Lanzhou to Hekou had the lowest water yield, with a value of 44 million m³·a^-1. The average water yield depth of permanent glacier and snow land was the largest in the whole basin. Grassland was the main contributor to the total water yield of the whole basin, providing 62.6% of the total water yield. Land use/cover change had moderate effect on water yield.