1

An agent-based model was developed around the Yellow River’s most far-reaching water quota institution during the past half century, considering how factors such as human behaviour and environmental change have combined with the institutional shifts to lead to changes in the Yellow River’s water use.

The Yellow River, once the world’s most sediment-rich river, has experienced dramatic regime shifts. We reanalyzed previous datasets to clarify the first historical sediment transport regime shift in the Yellow River. Our results suggest a regime shift occurred only under increased forcing from anthropogenic stresses (after 1900 AD).