Study of impacts of floods on the water quality in an arid zone: the case of the Tarim River in Northwest China

This paper presents the results of the study undertaken at the Tarim River Basin in Northwest China to analyze impacts of flooding on water quality. It was shown that irregular rainfall was the cause of flash floods that affected many ecosystems and eroded soils. Simulation results and the existence of relationships between flood volume and flood peak allowed potential model application that included flood peak estimation. The analysis of water pollution through sample sediment was helped by spectroscopy techniques and it was found that the flood was the main cause of many chemical elements in water. The floods affected the quality of water in the Tarim River where it was slightly basic with pH = 8.1 before flooding and acidic with pH = 6.9 after flooding.