Study of ecological baseflow in Fenghe River

Streamflow is crucial to the river ecological system, and it´s important to maintain ecological baseflow in the river for the health of river ecological system. In Fenghe River, three methods (Tennant, Perennial average streamflow of driest month and wetted perimeter method) were applied to calculate the ecological baseflow. It was found that the results of ecological baseflow based on the three methods are 0.57 m³/s, 0.79 m³/s and 1.79 m³/s, respectively. Because the wetted perimeter method considered both the hydrological data and conditions of cross section, the results of wetted perimeter method should be more reasonable than the other two methods. In addition, the ecological baseflow based on the wetted perimeter method was bigger than the others. Therefore, the streamflow should usually be over 1.79 m³/s for improving the health of Fenghe River.