Joint operation of the Longyangxia and Liujiaxia reservoirs (Long-Liu operation) is of great significance for water and sediment regulation in the Yellow River. The water-sediment-electricity coupling system is a giant system with complex nonlinear relationships. A reliable Long-Liu operation scheme facilitates maximization of the benefits of the water-sediment-electricity system. Based on systems thinking, this paper quantitatively evaluated the reliability of different Long-Liu operation schemes and coordination of the water-sediment-electricity coupling system through the entropy weight method and dissipative structure model. The results indicated that the current operation scheme is more reliable than the adjusted scheme at the inter-annual scale and during the summer-autumn flood season and ice flood season within a year. However, the operation scheme should be improved during the spring irrigation period. The key factors influencing the quality of the water-sediment-electricity system include the outflow of the Liujiaxia reservoir, incoming sediment load into the Yellow River at Toudaoguai, sediment inflow-outflow difference in the Ningxia-Inner Mongolia Reach, water flow at Lanzhou and power generation upstream of Toudaoguai. The water-sediment-electricity system under the current Long-Liu operation scheme is more coordinated than that in the adjusted state, but the overall coordinated development of the system remains at a low activity level.
© 2021. The Author(s).