In recent years, climate change and anthropogenic activities have threatened the water supply in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, prompting this study into the variation of water resources and the influencing factors, taking the Huangfuchuan basin as an example. Firstly, changes in climatic aridity and annual runoff in the Huangfuchuan basin from 1956 to 2009 were analysed. Then, the influence of changes in climatic aridity, water use for irrigation and soil conservation measures were calculated using an analysis of principal components regression. The results show that climatic aridity has increased in the recent three decades with two abrupt changes around 1961 and 1998, and that annual runoff has decreased continually with two abrupt changes around 1979 and 1999. The rapid development of sediment check dams in the 1970s could be the reason for the abrupt change around 1979. The abrupt change around 1999 could be the result of both the intensification of changes in climatic aridity and the large-scale construction of water and soil conservation measures after 1983, the further improvement of these measures after 1993 and ecological restoration measures of converting cropland to forest implemented since 1997. By quantifying the effects of those factors that influence runoff variation, it was found that anthropogenic activities were more important than climate change in the two periods between 1979–1998 and 1999–2006, but the influence of changes in climatic aridity increased from the first to the second period. For the runoff reduction related to anthropogenic activities, the primary cause was water diversion for irrigation in the first period, and it was soil conservation measures in the second period.

Using data of temperature, wind, precipitation, water discharge, and sediment load, the changes in runoff and sediment load of the Xiliugou basin in the upper Yellow River were investigated and the contributions of climate change and human activities to these changes were quantitatively estimated. Results show that the runoff and sediment load of the stream declined gradually in 1960–2012. According to the abrupt change point detected, the runoff and sediment series were divided into two periods: 1960–1998 and 1999–2012. The reductions of runoff and sediment load in 1999–2012 were found to be related to climate change and human activities, and the latter played a dominant role with a contribution of about 68% and 75%, respectively. The effects of rainfall intensity should be considered to avoid overestimating or underestimating the contributions of rainfall changes to the variations of runoff and sediment load in the semiarid region. An inspection of changes in water discharge and sediment regime indicated that the frequency of discharge between 0 and 5 m³/s increased while that between 5 and 1000 m³/s decreased in 2006–2012. This phenomenon can be attributed principally to the soil and water conservation practices.