ABSTRACT
The Tautunhe River is a mountain stream originating in the Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang, China. Its catchment area is 1638 km2. The stream flow mainly comes from the mid-high mountain area upstream from above the Zhicaichang Hydrometrie Station, in that the catchment area of 840 km2 accounts for 51.3% of the total catchment area, but contributes 90% of the annual flow of the Toutunhe River. The low mountain area, with less vegetation (coverage 10-30%) and little precipitation (less than 200 mm), accounts for 44.1% of the total catchment area, in which the average runoff is only 10% of the total runoff in Toutunhe River, but has 70% of the total sediment discharge of the Toutunhe River Basin (Figure 1).
