scholarly journals Quantifying the impacts of land use/land cover change on the water balance in the afforested River Basin, Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (19) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naeem Saddique ◽  
Talha Mahmood ◽  
Christian Bernhofer

Abstract Land use and land cover (LULC) change is one of the key driving elements responsible for altering the hydrology of a watershed. In this study, we investigated the spatio-temporal LULC changes between 2001 and 2018 and their impacts on the water balance of the Jhelum River Basin. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to analyze the impacts on water yield (WY) and evapotranspiration (ET). The model was calibrated and validated with discharge data between 1995 and 2005 and then simulated with different land use. The increase was observed in forest, settlement and water areas during the study period. At the catchment scale, we found that afforestation has reduced the WY and surface runoff, while enhanced the ET. Moreover, this change was more pronounced at the sub-basin scale. Some sub-basins, especially in the northern part of the study area, exhibited an increase in WY due to an increase in the snow cover area. Similarly, extremes land use scenarios also showed significant impact on water balance components. The basin WY has decreased by 38 mm/year and ET has increased about 36 mm/year. The findings of this study could guide the watershed manager in the development of sustainable LULC planning and water resources management.

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 2233-2246 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. D. Wagner ◽  
S. Kumar ◽  
K. Schneider

Abstract. Land use changes are altering the hydrologic system and have potentially large impacts on water resources. Rapid socio-economic development drives land use change. This is particularly true in the case of the rapidly developing city of Pune, India. The present study aims at analyzing past land use changes between 1989 and 2009 and their impacts on the water balance in the Mula and Mutha Rivers catchment upstream of Pune. Land use changes were identified from three Rivers catchment multitemporal land use classifications for the cropping years 1989/1990, 2000/2001, and 2009/2010. The hydrologic model SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was used to assess impacts on runoff and evapotranspiration. Two model runs were performed and compared using the land use classifications of 1989/1990 and 2009/2010. The main land use changes were identified as an increase of urban area from 5.1% to 10.1% and cropland from 9.7% to 13.5% of the catchment area during the 20 yr period. Urbanization was mainly observed in the eastern part and conversion to cropland in the mid-northern part of the catchment. At the catchment scale we found that the impacts of these land use changes on the water balance cancel each other out. However, at the sub-basin scale urbanization led to an increase of the water yield by up to 7.6%, and a similar decrease of evapotranspiration, whereas the increase of cropland resulted in an increase of evapotranspiration by up to 5.9%.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1943-1985 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. D. Wagner ◽  
S. Kumar ◽  
K. Schneider

Abstract. Land use changes are altering the hydrologic system and have potentially large impacts on water resources. Rapid socio-economic development drives land use change. This is particularly true in the case of the rapidly developing city of Pune, India. The present study aims at analyzing past land use changes between 1989 and 2009 and their impacts on the water balance in the Mula and Mutha Rivers catchment upstream of Pune. Land use changes were identified from three multitemporal land use classifications for the cropping years 1989/1990, 2000/2001, and 2009/2010. The hydrologic model SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was used to assess impacts on runoff and evapotranspiration. Two model runs were performed and compared using the land use classifications of 1989/1990 and 2009/2010. The main land use changes were identified as an increase of urban area from 5.1% to 10.1% and cropland from 9.7% to 13.5% of the catchment area during the 20 yr period. Urbanization was mainly observed in the eastern part and conversion to cropland in the mid-northern part of the catchment. At the catchment scale we found that the impacts of these land use changes on the water balance cancel each other. However, at the sub-basin scale urbanization led to an increase of the water yield by up to 7.6%, and a similar decrease of evapotranspiration, whereas the increase of cropland resulted in an increase of evapotranspiration by up to 5.9%.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 338-354
Author(s):  
Quentin Fiacre Togbévi ◽  
◽  
Luc Ollivier Sintondji

<abstract> <p>This study evaluated the impact of land use and land cover changes on the water balance of the Couffo catchment (Benin) using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). To that end, soil, land uses, hydro-meteorological data including rainfall, temperatures (maximum and minimum), wind speed, solar radiation, relative humidity and discharge data were used as main inputs. To assess the impact of land uses on the catchment water balance, three different land uses (2000, 2006 and 2011) were used. Results showed that from 2000 to 2011, croplands and fallows increased by 34% while the shrub and grass savannahs decreased respectively by 34 and 24%. In addition, agroforestry and gallery forest decreased by 63% and 58% respectively while a rapid increase in settlement. The study outcome suggested that the SWAT provided satisfactory results for discharge with R<sup>2</sup>, NSE, KGE and absolute percent of bias (absPBIAS) ranged between (0.7–0.9), (0.6–0.9). (0.6–0.9) and (5.3–34) respectively. Moreover, the evaluation of land use and land cover changes on the catchment water balance resulted in an increase in annual surface water and water yield, while the groundwater and actual evapotranspiration (ETa) have decreased. Findings of this study may be a great contribution to water resource management in the Couffo catchment. This may contribute to better allocate water for the actual catchment population demand without dampening those of the future generation.</p> </abstract>


2013 ◽  
Vol 405-408 ◽  
pp. 2201-2207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Nan Li ◽  
Ping Xie ◽  
Yong Zhu

In order to evaluate quantitatively the hydrology and water resources effects of land use and land cover change (LUCC), a zonal watershed hydrological model considering land use and land cover change (ZWHM-LUCC) was developed. According to the daily rainfall, evaporation and discharge data of Wuding River Basin during 1980~2000, the parameters of the model were calibrated and verified. The results show that coefficient of water balance (R) is 1.004 and the qualified rate of annual runoff depth (DR) is86.67% during calibration period 1986~2000 and the R is 0.938 and the DR is 66.67% during calibration verification 1980~1985. The calculated results indicate that this model has good adaptability in Wuding River Basin. The different scenarios of land use/land cover were analyzed by the model, with 2000 year as base year, 13 scenarios were designed, which be helpful to study water-economy-ecology interactions and natural-social dualistic, and provide the scientific basis for Wuding river basin water and soil conservation planning and water resources planning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13041
Author(s):  
Yuechao Chen ◽  
Makoto Nakatsugawa

The 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake and its landslides threaten the safety and stability of the Atsuma River basin. This study investigates land use and land cover (LULC) change by analyzing the 2015 and 2020 LULC maps of the basin, and its impact on runoff and sediment transport in the basin by using the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model to accurately simulate the runoff and sediment transport process. This study finds that the earthquake and landslide transformed nearly 10% of the forest into bare land in the basin. The simulation results showed that the runoff, which was simulated based on the 2020 LULC data, was slightly higher than that based on the 2015 LULC data, and the sediment transport after the earthquake is significantly higher than before. The rate of sediment transportation after the earthquake, adjusted according to the runoff, was about 3.42 times more than before. This shows that as the forest land decreased, the bare land increased. Conversely, the runoff increased slightly, whereas the sediment transport rate increased significantly in the Atsuma River basin after the earthquake. In future, active governance activities performed by humans can reduce the amount of sediment transport in the basin.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Wu ◽  
Jinyan Zhan ◽  
Jiancheng Chen ◽  
Chao He ◽  
Qian Zhang

Understanding the effects of forestation on the hydrological process is crucial to protecting water resources. In this study, the upstream Heihe River Basin is selected as the study area, which is the water source area of the whole basin. The grassland and forest are the main land use types, the proportion of which in the total land area is 21% and 50%, respectively. Firstly, a scenario of forestation was designed with the actual land cover data in 1980. Then a scenario with simulated land cover data in 1980 was established, in which the forest area increases by 12%. Thereafter a hydrological simulation was carried out with the actual and simulated land cover maps and the climate observation data during 1980–2010. The results suggested that the total water yield increased by 12.57 mm under the scenario with land use change during 1980–2010 compared with the simulation with the actual land cover in 1980. However, the results also indicated that the surface runoff reduced by 22.17 mm during the same period, indicating the forest land has “sponge” effects on the water resource in the mountainous watershed. These results may provide important information that supports operational practices, such as forest regeneration programs and watershed restoration.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Maria Bessa Santos ◽  
Luís Filipe Sanches Fernandes ◽  
Rui Manuel Vitor Cortes ◽  
Fernando António Leal Pacheco

The study area used for this study was the Sabor river basin (located in the Northeast of Portugal), which is composed mostly for agroforestry. The objectives were to analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of hydrological services that occurred due to land use changes between 1990 and 2008 and to consider two scenarios for the year 2045. The scenarios were, firstly, afforestation projection, proposed by the Regional Plan for Forest Management, and secondly, wildfires that will affect 32% of the basin area. In this work, SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was used to simulate the provision of hydrological services, namely water quantity, being calibrated for daily discharge. The calibration and validation showed a good agreement for discharge with coefficients of determination of 0.63 and 0.8 respectively. The land use changes and the afforestation scenario showed decreases in water yield, surface flow, and groundwater flow and increases in evapotranspiration and lateral flow. The wildfire scenario, contrary to the afforestation scenario, showed an increase in surface flow and a decrease in lateral flow. The Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes in 2000 and 2006 showed average decreases in the water yield of 91 and 52 mm·year−1, respectively. The decrease in water yield was greater in the afforestation scenario than in the wildfires scenario mainly in winter months. In the afforestation scenario, the large decrease varied between 28 hm3·year−1 in October and 62 hm3·year−1 in January, while in the wildfires scenario, the decrease was somewhat smaller, varying between 15 hm3·year−1 in October and 49 hm3·year−1 in January.


CATENA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 182 ◽  
pp. 104129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Awotwi ◽  
Geophrey Kwame Anornu ◽  
Jonathan Arthur Quaye-Ballard ◽  
Thompson Annor ◽  
Eric Kwabena Forkuo ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. van Griensven ◽  
L. Breuer ◽  
M. Di Luzio ◽  
V. Vandenberghe ◽  
P. Goethals ◽  
...  

Research and development in hydroinfomatics can play an important role in environmental impact assessment by integrating physically-based models, data-driven models and other Information and Communication Tools (ICT). An illustration is given in this paper describing the developments around the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to support the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive. SWAT operates on the river basin scale and includes processes for the assessment of complex diffuse pollution; it is open-source software, which allows for site-specific modifications to the source and easy linkage to other hydroinformatics tools. A crucial step in the world-wide applicability of SWAT was the integration of the model into a GIS environment, allowing for a quick model set-up using digital information on terrain elevation, land use and management, soil properties and weather conditions. Model analysis tools can be integrated with SWAT to assist in the tedious tasks of model calibration, parameter optimisation, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis and allows better understanding of the model before addressing scientific and societal questions. Finally, further linkage of SWAT to ecological assessment tools, Land Use prediction tools and tools for Optimal Experimental Design shows that SWAT can play an important role in multi-disciplinary eco-environmental impact assessment studies.


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