Impacts of soil and water conservation on water resources carrying capacity in Yellow River basin

The model to evaluate resources carrying capacity is established based on the theories of and footprint, and used to evaluate the impacts of soil and conservation in the Loess Plateau on the carrying capacity in the Yellow River Basin. Although the decrease in annual runoff in the Yellow River due to soil and conservation is 0.8 billion to 2.1 billion m3, the annual amount of used for transporting sediment in the Yellow River decreases by 4.612 billion m3, and the virtual water embedded in products provided by agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry increases by 22.642 billion m3. These two parts of amounted to 27.254 billion m3, which is far greater than the amount of runoff decreased by soil and conservation. According to the Chinese per capita carrying capacity in 2000 and the achievements acquired through soil and conservation by the end of The Ninth-five-year Plan, the increase in population afforded by resources in the Yellow River basin is 39.74～41.79 million. Thereby the resources carrying capacity in the Yellow River basin has been significantly improved by soil and conservation in the Loess Plateau.