Sediment Transfer through the Fluvial System (Proceedings of a symposium held in Moscow, August 2004). IAHS Publ. 288, 2004, 212–219

1 Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

2 Institute of Remote Sensing Application, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Abstract Nearly 100 drainage basins with gauging stations were chosen to investigate relationships between sediment yield and catchment characteristics in the Middle Yellow River basin. The size of the catchments ranged from 50 to 25 000 km² and they were grouped into seven categories according to their different physiographic characteristics. A database comprising information on sediment yield and catchment characteristics, including vegetation cover, surface material and morphology, was assembled for these basins using remote sensing combined with ground truthing and desk analysis. Based on this information, an index of basin characteristics VSD was produced to relate to specific sediment yield and a significant positive relationship was obtained for the study catchments. Multiple regression analysis was also employed to demonstrate that the most important variable influencing specific sediment yield was vegetation coverage, followed by basin morphology and surface material.

Key words catchment characteristics; China; Middle Yellow River basin; sediment yield