Authors: YU Xiao *, LI Chong *, WANG Hao **, WANG Yi-cheng *

* China Institute of Water Resource and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100048, China
** Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Abstract: The Argun River is a boundary river between China and Russia, which is an ungauged basin without sufficient hydrological and topographic data. Thus, it is impossible to apply a hydrodynamic model to the river in a conventional way. The USGS 3 second DEM data (approximately 30m resolution) is a public resource, but less accurate in some areas. In this study, the USGS 3 second DEM data set was modified by river and wetlands information extracted from Google Earth images, and the annual maximum inundation area was simulated through model MIKE11, a one-dimensional unsteady hydrodynamic model. Wetlands area extracted from TM images (Sept, 2000) was compared with simulated maximum flood area in the same year and the result shows that the former and latter overlap well and the latter almost includes all the former. The annual highest MODIS EVI (YEVI) shows significant degradation in 2000-2009 in the reach from Erka to Heishantou along the Argun River. There is significantly positive correlation between the YEVI value and the annual maximum inundation area. The larger the inundation area, the higher the YEVI value and the better the vegetation. It suggests that the flood is a major positive driving force behind the vegetation change in the Argun River basin.

Key words: Ungauged basin, flood inundation, USGS 30m DEM, MIKE11, Wetlands of Argun River, vegetation variation trend

Published in: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Vol. 42, No. 11, 2011
Article ID: 0559-9350 (2011) 11-1308-08