On August, 2nd, Doctor Yin Zun of Sorbonn University was invited to conduct academic exchanges at Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia (RCEECA).

Doctor Yin Zun gave an academic report titled “Impacts of irrigation and reservoir regulation on the streamflow of the Yellow River”, in which he first introduced the importance of plants growing and irrigation module in land surface model and then explained the technological details on improving irrigation module in ORCHIDEE, a French land surface model. Through simulating experiment in different circumstances and contrast of monitoring data, he explained the spatial distribution of water used for agriculture in China and revealed two different responding mechanisms of irrigation to abnormal rainfall. He also pointed out the significant influence of reservoir regulation and groundwater development to the total water storage capacity of Yangtze River and Yellow River. Based on the analysis of the statistical data, Doctor Yin Zun demonstrated that improving irrigation efficiency is the key to the fall of China’s agricultural water demand and reminded that irrigation may significantly influence local climate. In the following streamflow simulation and analysis of Yellow River, after comprehensively analysing climate, simulation and monitoring data, he revealed the deep influence of irrigation to the annual streamflow of Yellow River; he used a simple reservoir to successfully explain the abnormality of the seasonal changes of streamflow.

Doctor Yin Zun’s report drew the attention of all the researchers and students present. They actively exchanged ideas and Doctor Yin Zun answered their questions one by one.

Doctor Yin Zun, who received doctoral degree in geosciences from Utrecht University, is now working at Sorbonn University. The main research directions include the interaction of ecological system and climate, ecological hydrology, land surface model development and application and early warning for ecological crash. He was involved in the development of Germany’s geological information software, sustainable development-focused project of Utrecht University and ESA’s climate change initiatives. Since his involvement in China-French Joint Project —China Trend Stream since 2016, his main research is the impact of climate change, agricultural irrigation and water conservancy project on Yangtze River and Yellow River. His research results are published in internationally renowned academic journals on geosciences and ecology such as Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Geoscientific Model Development, Earth System Dynamics and Biogeosciences.

Academic exchange site