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PhD Final Defense – Mingyue Xie

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Location
Hydro-system Lab Room 2015
Date
Aug 23, 2024   8:00 am  
Views
39
Originating Calendar
CEE Seminars and Conferences

Understanding the climate-land-sediment relationships in the context of coupled nature-human

system (CNHS) of high mountain watersheds

Advisor: Professor Ximing Cai

ABSTRACT

In high mountain watersheds, the intricate interdependencies between climate change, land use

evolution, and sediment dynamics have profound implications for both ecosystems and human

societies. Global warming has markedly altered climatic regimes, exacerbating the water cycle and

intensifying hydrological responses. Concurrently, anthropogenic activities have driven significant

land use changes, further entangling the relationship between climate and land, with far-reaching,

synergistic impacts on sediment yield and watershed management. Understanding these complex

interactions within the framework of coupled nature-human systems (CNHS) is imperative for

developing sustainable management strategies, especially in fragile, high-altitude environments.

This dissertation tackles these challenges through a multi-faceted methodology framework

exemplified by a case study in the upper Lancang River Basin (LRB) situated in the southeastern

Tibetan Plateau. The projection of climate-vegetation cover-land use interrelations, grounded in

statistical methods and integrated with hydrological simulations, examines the synergistic impacts

of climate change and land use modifications on hydrological processes, providing a quantitative

analysis of how these factors interact to shape watershed dynamics. To further delve into the

intricacies of the CNHS, the dissertation introduces a novel modeling framework, in which a

coupled Cellular Automata-Agent-Based Model (CA-ABM) is bi-directionally integrated with a

hydrologic-agronomic model (SWAT+), enabling explicit modeling of land use decision making,

the feedback between natural and human systems, and the effects on environmental outcomes.

Ultimately, this framework is extended for future land use projection, emphasizing the feedback

mechanisms and coevolutionary dynamics between human behaviors and environmental emergent

properties, and exploring adaptive land use decision behaviors and policies that can mitigate

adverse environmental consequences while promoting sustainable development.

With an emphasis on the dynamic interactions between natural processes and anthropogenic

activities, this dissertation addresses synergistic and coevolutionary features of climate-land sediment

dynamics in high mountain watersheds in the context of CNHS. By illuminating the

feedback mechanisms and emergent properties, this work offers critical insights for policymakers

and environmental managers aiming to fortify the resilience and sustainability of river basin

systems amid ongoing climatic and land use transformations.

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