Water resilience to policy implementation and engineered measures in the Yellow River Basin

River basins couple the natural ecosystem with the socio-economic system. Regime shifts due to climate change and social-economic factors highlight the importance of quantifying and strengthening the water resilience in the river basin. Water resilience in river basin systems requires more specific quantification. The Yellow River Basin (YRB) was well-known for its historically severe water supply pressure in recent decades, profoundly adjusted by the social-economic system. A system dynamic model named the Water-Sediment-Social Economic-Ecological Model (WSSEEM) was proposed around the interactions and feedback among water supply, sediment discharge, vegetation changes, food production and social-economic development in the YRB. Using WSSEEM, we simulate water supply and demand resilience to changes and distributions, including policy implementation and engineered measures during the historical time (1981-2020) and future scenarios. Our result indicates that technology enhancement and engineered measures are instructive in water management and sediment discharge. The WSSEEM offers a comprehensive approach to representing the river basin system, providing valuable insights into using model simulation to achieve sustainable goals and resilient water management.