Reservoir operations for water and sediment regulation on the Yellow River ended before the main flood season
The Yellow River’s water and sediment regulation has come to a successful close. The 19-day coordinated operations achieved sediment discharge and silt reduction while creating reservoir capacity for the flood season. It set a new record for the same period and also took ecological replenishment into account. Attention should be paid to subsequent flood-control developments and downstream risks.
The Yellow River Water Conservancy Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources of China announced on July 10 that the reservoir operation for water and sediment regulation before the main flood season in 2026 of the Yellow River has been completed. On the morning of that day, Xiaolangdi Reservoir discharged water at a rate of 600 cubic meters per second, marking the successful conclusion of this round of operations.
This water and sediment regulation began on June 22 and lasted 19 days in total. During this period, the overall river conditions in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River remained stable, and no major danger incidents occurred in river engineering works. Xiaolangdi Reservoir discharged a cumulative 4.999 billion cubic meters of water, with a maximum sediment concentration at the outlet reaching 787 kilograms per cubic meter, and the maximum flow at the Huayuankou station was 4,860 cubic meters per second.
The Yellow River Commission said that this round of operations coordinated the joint operation of reservoirs such as Wanjiazhai, Sanmenxia, and Xiaolangdi, while also working in conjunction with some tributary reservoirs to regulate together, balancing goals such as sediment discharge and silt reduction, creating storage capacity for flood season, ecological water replenishment, and drought relief and supply保障. Data show that Xiaolangdi Reservoir discharged 179 million tons of sediment this time, and the net scouring in the reservoir area reached 171 million tons, both setting new highs for the same period in water and sediment regulation; at the same time, the reservoirs participating in the operation freed up a total storage capacity of 4.172 billion cubic meters, and carried out ecological water replenishment to the downstream reaches and the Yellow River estuary delta wetland.
The Yellow River Commission said that in the next step it will continue to monitor the evolution of high flows in the downstream river channel and weather changes