High-frequency zone of river desiccation disasters in China and influencing factors.

In recent years, the desiccation of the lower Yellow River has raised concerns in the government, public, and scientific community in China. Long-term and widespread desiccation of rivers is a disaster with many adverse environmental implications. It has been found in this study that there exists a high-frequency zone of river desiccation disasters at 34 degrees -42 degrees N in the North China Plain. The hazardous environment is characterized by semiarid climate, widely distributed thick loess in the basin and a "hanging river bed" in the plain as well as unfavorable man-water-land coupling relationships. In this setting, the sharply increased water diversion by man since the late 1950s led to the occurrence of river desiccation disasters in the lower reaches of the river in this area.