A joint research team from Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) and Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST) has elaborated on the changing characteristics of precipitation patterns in the Xijiang River Basin over the past half century, as well as the mechanisms of its wet and dry evolution.

They have, for the first time, revealed the spatiotemporal response characteristics of precipitation pattern changes and hydrology in the Xijiang River Basin, providing a scientific basis for the effective prevention of droughts and floods in major rivers.

The research paper has been published online in Nature Communications. The primary author of the paper is Professor Wu Yiping from XJTU, while the corresponding author is Professor Zhou Guoyi from NUIST.

Speaking about the original intention of the research, Prof Wu said that although both droughts and floods are related to abnormal changes in precipitation, in the Xijiang River, droughts occur frequently in the upper reaches of the basin while floods occur in the lower reaches appears, which is an opposite trend of drought and flood change, despite a consistent trend in precipitation changes.

Only by understanding the evolutionary mechanism between precipitation changes and droughts and floods can the researchers provide reliable data support and a theoretical basis for the efficient prevention and control of extreme water disasters, he added.

Through years of research, they concluded that increased precipitation and differences in terrain collectively resulted in two completely opposite hydrological phenomena in the upper and lower reaches of the Xijiang River Basin.