Abstract: The Yellow River Basin is located in arid and semiarid regions of China, where water resources system is very sensitive to climate change. Temperature and precipitation in the Yellow River Basin have changed obviously in recent decades. Since the mid1980s, temperature has been significantly increased, especially in winter temporally and in the north of the basin spatially. In the 1990s, precipitation in the Yellow River Basin was decreased apparently, and it has been slightly increased in 21st century. Climate warming and precipitation decrease were the important causes resulting in a sharp reduction of runoff volume in the Yellow River Basin. According to the predicted results with climate change model, the temperature would apparently increase and precipitation would have a slightly increment in 2050, which will aggravate the contradiction between demand and supply of water resources in the Yellow River Basin. Therefore, some adaptive measures should be taken so as to reduce the negative effects of climate change on water resources in the Yellow River Basin.

Key words: climate change, water resources, air temperature, precipitation, the Yellow River Basin