Scour and silting evolution and its influencing factors in Inner Mongolian Reach of the Yellow River

Rivers with fluvial equilibrium are characterized by bed deformation adjustment. The erosion-deposition area in cross-section reflects this characteristic, which is a base of researching the river scour and deposition evolution by time series analysis. With an ero- sion-deposition area indicator method proposed in this paper, the time series of ero- sion-deposition area quantity at Bygl and Shhk stations were obtained with the series duration of 31 years from 1976 to 2006. After analysis of its trend and mutation, three different ten- dencies about the evolution were observed in general from the quasi-equilibrium phase through a rapid shrinkage to the final new quasi-equilibrium. It is also found that the trend of erosion-deposition area series will change once a big flood occurred in some of the tributaries and its ever greater influence is due to the decrease of deluge with the completion of up- stream reservoirs. Almost all the turning points were coincident with the time when hy- per-concentrated sediment flood occurred in some tributaries. With the time series of clear mutations since the late 1990s, the Inner Mongolian Reach has been in a new equilibrium phase. This can be concluded in two aspects. 1. The absence of big floods and sediment transportation from tributaries result in the river shrinkage, and to regain the channel flow-carrying capacity in Inner Mongolian Reach a large flood is needed both of high peak discharge and of lengthy interval to destroy the new equilibrium. 2. The proposed method of erosion-deposition area indicator is of great help to channel scour-deposition evolution analysis because it can demonstrate real time deformation of cross section in quantity.