Enhanced understanding of dominant drivers of Water Yield change across China through the improved coupled carbon and water model

Shen, Huilan; Yang, Hanbo; Li, Changming

doi:10.5194/hess-30-4175-2026

Articles | Volume 30, issue 13

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4175-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4175-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 30, issue 13

Research article

|

03 Jul 2026

Research article |

| 03 Jul 2026

Enhanced understanding of dominant drivers of Water Yield change across China through the improved coupled carbon and water model

Huilan Shen, Hanbo Yang, and Changming Li

Data sets

A daily gap-free normalized difference vegetation index product from 1981 to 2023 in China Huiwen Li https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7002225.v1

GLC_FCS30D: the first global 30-m land-cover dynamic monitoring product with fine classification system from 1985 to 2022 Liangyun Liu et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8239305

Short summary

Climate change, rising [CO₂], and vegetation dynamics are reshaping global water cycle, but their impacts remain unclear. We improved the coupled carbon and water model to analyze China’s water yield (WY) changes (1982–2017). Our results showed that climate change was the dominant driver nationally, vegetation/ [CO₂] most affected in 400-1600 mm precipitation zones. Projections indicate [CO₂] may outweigh vegetation effects on WY by 2100. This work informs sustainable water management.