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Abstract: Based on the water resource exergy including chemical exergy, thermal exergy, potential exergy and sediment exergy, the allocation of water resource exergy along the mainstream Yellow River is illuminated. The water resource exergy for different anthropocentric water uses is also classified as agricultural irrigation exergy, industrial exergy, urban domestic exergy and rural domestic exergy. Aquatic exergetic ecotope (AEE) index is proposed as an indicator of the river ecosystem status in view of resource characteristic of exergetic assessment. Finally, the influences of the intake water on the AEE indices are well illustrated to reveal the possible impacts of water allocation on the river ecosystem status. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Yellow River basin is an opening ecosystem exchanging energy and materials with the surrounding environment. Based on emergy as embodied solar energy, the social energy and materials metabolism of the Yellow River basin is aggregated into emergetic equivalent to assess the level of resource depletion, environmental impact and local sustainability. A set of emergy indices are also established to manifest the ecological status of the total river basin ecosystem. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Based on the resource exergy theory, a unified exergetic index is proposed to assess both the quantity and quality of the water of the mainstream Yellow River, thus verifying the real available quantity of the river water in an ecological thermodynamics view. The chemical exergy, thermal exergy, potential exergy and sediment exergy of the river water as partial exergies are, respectively, calculated with the field river water intake data of the mainstream Yellow River. Exergetic potential is also defined to describe different working capacities of the river water along the mainstream. Finally, the temporal and spatial variation of the water resources of the mainstream Yellow River is illuminated with the proposed exergetic measure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Based on the classification and regionalization of the ecosystem, multiple ecological management objectives and the spatial variability of the environmental flow requirements of the Yellow River Basin were analyzed in this study. The summation rule was used to calculate water consumption requirements and the compatibility rule, i.e., “maximum” principle, was also adopted to estimate the non-consumptive use of water in the river basin. The environmental flow requirements for integrated water resources allocation were determined by identifying the natural and artificial water consumption in the Yellow River Basin. The results indicated that the annual minimum environmental flow requirements amounted to 317.62×108 m3, which represented 54.76% of the natural river flows, while for the environmental flow requirements for the integrated water resources allocation were 262.47×108 m3, which represented 45.25% of the natural river flows. The highest percentage of environmental flow requirements was 93.64% for the river ecosystem. It can be concluded that the primary concerns should be put on the downstream river water requirements to determine the environmental flows for integrated water resources allocation in a river basin. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]