The effect of ecological management in the upper reaches of Heihe River

Heihe River is the second largest inland river in northwest China which flows through Qinghai Province, Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Because of the rapid development of social economy, the sharp increase of water utilization in the middle reaches and the aggravation of contradiction of supply and demand on water resources, the water to the lower reaches decreases and the ecological environment deteriorates constantly. According to the severe situation of ecology system depravation in Heihe River basin, Chinese government decided to invest 2.35 billion RMB to carry out 3 years ecological management in Heihe River basin from August in 2001. After 3 years ecological management, the depravation of ecological environment is controlled effectively. This paper researches the ecological management engineering in the upper reaches of Heihe River and evaluates the effect of the ecological management engineering. The methods of field sampling and measuring are used to obtain the index indicating the ecology change in the upper reaches of Heihe River in 2006. The effects of fencing grassland, fencing natural forest, and artificial afforestation to the ecology are evaluated. The result suggests that: Firstly, in fencing grassland area, the yield of grass had increased by 42–113%, average height of the grass had increased by 60–100%, and the degree of coverage had increased by 67–100%. Secondly, in fencing natural forests area, the degree of coverage had increased by 15–33%, the shade density had increased by 50–100%, average height had increased by 80–125%, and the crown size had increased by 63–186%. Thirdly, the growth increment of the trees in artificial afforestation area is bigger than that outside artificial afforestation area. In conclusion, ecological management leads to obvious ecological effect in the upper reaches of Heihe River.