Abstract
This study focuses on the braided river of the lower Yellow River, analyzing the effects of two artificial levee management schemes—wide levee spacing and narrow levee spacing—on flood peak attenuation and spatial distribution under different return periods (5-year, 10-year, and 100-year floods). The results demonstrate that both schemes significantly reduce flood peak discharges, with the attenuation magnitude increasing as the flood return period becomes longer. The wide levee spacing scheme exhibits superior peak reduction performance under extreme flood conditions, achieving a maximum reduction of 985.6 m3/s and an average reduction of 342.02 m3/s during the 100-year flood event, though accompanied by a water level rise of 0.57–1.14 m. The narrow levee spacing scheme ranks second, with a maximum reduction of 669.51 m3/s and an average reduction of 290.32 m3/s, with water levels rising by 0.66–1.45 m. Spatially, the levee schemes may slightly increase peak discharge at upstream sections (e.g., Daliusi) while achieving significant reductions at downstream sections (e.g., Baocheng). The wide levee spacing scheme is more suitable for addressing high flood risks, particularly in extreme flood scenarios, while the narrow levee spacing scheme is better suited for moderate flood control, balancing peak attenuation and upstream-downstream flow distribution. This study provides a scientific basis for flood control and optimization design in braided river reaches.
Data availability
Data and materials are available from the corresponding author upon request.
References
Liu, B. et al. Spatio-temporal Atlas of Yellow River Water and Sediment (Science Press, 2019).
Chen, Y. et al. Socio-economic impacts on flooding: a 4000-Year history of the yellow River, China. Springer Nat. 41, 682–698 (2012).
Li, G., Fu, J. & Zhang, S. Analysis of the current status of the secondary suspension river in the Henan section of the yellow river. People’s Yellow River 6, 35–39 (2005).
Chen, P. & Wang, H. A brief discussion on the causes of siltation and elevation in the lower reaches of the yellow river and measures for its control. Water Conservancy Constr. Manage. 19 (05), 24–25 (1999).
Wang, S. Research on the reduction of siltation in the lower reaches of the yellow river through water diversion and sand control at the Xiaolangdi reservoir. People’s Yellow River 7, 10–14 (1996).
Chen, X., An, Y. & Wang, X. New water-sediment conditions balanced sediment distribution scheme for the lower yellow river. J. Sediment. Res. 42 (02), 1–8 (2017).
Lan, H., Zeng, H. & Huo, F. Sediment Deposition and Sediment Management Technology in the Floodplain Areas of the Lower Yellow River (Yellow River Water Conservancy, 2011).
Liu, G. et al. Ecological effectiveness of ecological engineering on the loess plateau. Proc. Chin. Acad. Sci. 32 (01), 11–19 (2017).
Zhang, Y., Wang, P. & Zhang, K. A review of the control techniques and application practices of water and sediment in the yellow river. J. Hydropower Dev. Res. 25 (02), 6–12 (2025).
An, X. Analysis on flood control and silt reduction effects and benefit tracking of Xiaolangdi reservoir on the yellow river. People’s Yellow River. 45 (08), 37–42 (2023).
Li, G. Keeping the yellow river healthy. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium on River Sedimentation (2004).
Zhao, S. Water and sediment characteristics and river bed evolution analysis of the Yellow River in Lanzhou section[J]. ScienceTechnology and Engineering, 14(20) (2015).
Shi, C. et al. River base level change in mouth channel evolution: the case of the yellow river delta, China. Catena 183, 104193 (2019).
Zheng, S. et al. Backwater controls on the evolution and avulsion of the Qingshuigou channel on the yellow river delta. Geomorphology 333, 137–151 (2019).
Tian, S. et al. Fluvial processes of the downstream reaches of the reservoirs in the lower yellow river. J. Geog. Sci. 26 (9), 1321–1336 (2016).
Best, J. Anthropogenic stresses on the world’s big rivers. Nat. Geosci. 12, 7–21 (2019).
Raslan, Y. & Salama, R. Development of nile river Islands between old Aswan dam and new Esna barrages. Water Sci. 29 (1), 77–92 (2015).
Mosselman, E. Sustainable stabilisation of the Brahmaputra-Jamuna river in India and Bangladesh. Int. J. River Basin Manage. 2025, 1–9 (2025).
Yellow River Conservancy Commission. Research on the Management Model and Safety Construction of the Lower Reaches of the Yellow River (Yellow River Water Conservancy, 2005).
Zhang, J. & Liu, J. Research on the Division Scheme of the Lower Reaches of the Yellow River (China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, 2007).
Li, W. & Jiang, E. Research on the management strategy for the lower reaches of the yellow river. People’s Yellow River. 31 (10), 1–3 (2009).
Ning, Y., Wang, Y. & Zhang, G. Research Report on the Comprehensive Management of the Lower Reaches of the Yellow River (State Council South-to-North Water Diversion Project Construction Committee, 2012).
Dou, X. & Li, Y. Research on the transformation of the lower reaches of the yellow river and the management of the floodplain. Adv. Water Sci. 26 (03), 423–430 (2015).
Peng, X. et al. Study on the river regime control effect of the Groyne group in the lower yellow river. J. Dalian Univ. Technol. 62 (04), 378–385 (2022).
Zuo, P. et al. Feasibility analysis of relocation of residents in the lower yellow river floodplain. People’s Yellow River. 33 (10), 11–13 (2011).
Chen, J. et al. Influence of the use of flood detention area in the lower reaches of the yellow river on flood control. J. Wuhan Univ. (Eng. Technol. Ed.) 47 (03), 336–339 (2014).
Gao, J., Hu, C. & Chen, X. On the reconstruction of the lower yellow river channel and the management of secondary hanging river. J. China Inst. Water Resour. Hydropower Res. 1, 12–22. https://doi.org/10.13244/j.cnki.jiwhr.2004.01.002 (2004).
Lan, H. et al. Numerical simulation of water-sediment ratio during the 1996 abnormal flood in the lower reaches of the yellow river. J. Disaster Sci. 1, 17–20 (1999).
Zhu, M. Application of the MIKE 21 model in the design of Liuhu lake body. Hydraulic Sci. Technol. 4, 17–19 (2018).
Chen, Z. Study on the Application of Erosion-Prone Beach Rehabilitation Measures (Dalian University of Technology, 2017).
Wu, X. Numerical simulation of water and sediment in Xiaolangdi dam area based on MIKE(21,3). North China University of Water Resources and Hydropower[2024-03-26] (2024).
Shi, H. et al. Numerical simulation and prediction of sediment transport and deposition in the yellow river delta based on MIKE21. J. Ludong Univ. (Natural Sci. Edition). 40 (03), 201–209 (2024).
Suo, X. et al. Numerical simulation of flood evolution in the Si Pai Kou section of the yellow river based on the MIKE21 model. Sci. Technol. Vis. 4, 104–107 (2021).
Sun, D. et al. Application of MIKE21 in flood simulation in the lower reaches of the yellow river. People’s Yellow River. 31 (11), 27–28 (2009).
Yi, X. et al. Application and Research of DHI MIKE FLOOD Flood Simulation Technology (Beijing:China Water & Power, 2014).
Li, G. et al. Numerical simulation study of the combined operation of sluices and pump stations. J. Harbin Eng. Univ. 40 (04), 663–669 (2019).
Zhang, H. W. A study on the critical flow rate of flood disasters in the lower yellow river. J. Hydraul. Eng. 4, 1–6 (2000).
Xu, Y., Ren, M. & Wang, Y. Marginal effect analysis of flood disaster loss with flow rate. Adv. Water Sci. 29 (2), 268–275 (2018).
Zhang, J. Marginal loss characteristics of superstandard flood disasters in the lower reaches of the yellow river. Water Resour. Hydropower Technol. 51 (8), 1–7 (2020).
Cheng, X. Research on the relationship between marginal loss of flood disaster and engineering fortification standards. J. Nat. Disasters. 13 (3), 1–8 (2004).
Li, G. Y. Economic optimization of flood control design flow of large rivers. Water Conservancy Econ. 28 (1), 12–16 (2010).
Yellow River Water Conservancy Commission. In Revision Report on Design Standards for Flood Control Engineering in the Lower Reaches of the Yellow River. Zhengzhou: Yellow River Water (2023).
Xu, J. X. The effect of embankment distance on sedimentation rates in the lower reaches of the yellow river. Acta Geogr. Sin. 58 (02), 247–254 (2003).
Funding
The paper is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.U22A20237).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Luyao Zhang: Formal analysis, Investigation, Visualization, Writing – original draft.Haizhou Wang: Validation, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing.Jian Chen: Methodology, Software, Data curation, Writing – review & editing.All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, J., Zhang, L. & Wang, H. Evaluating flood peak attenuation effectiveness of levee management strategies in braided river reaches: a case study of the lower Yellow River. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38415-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38415-9
