Sustainable Land Use and Watershed Management in Response to Climate Change Impacts
The Srepok river basin (28,600km2) is located in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. There are many critical issues for soil and water resource management in the basin. Therefore, to make suitable adaptation plans, decision makers need to understand the extent of the potential impact of both climate change and human activity on local soil and water resources. The objective of this chapter was to investigate changes in stream flow, sediment load, and hydrological processes resulting from land use change and climatic variation. Plausible scenarios of land use change developed in a GIS environment based on current conditions, information from the area, and climate change scenarios were built on outputs of GCMs from the SEA-START. These changes were then inputted into SWAT model to project future hydrological variables. Results demonstrated that stream flow was predominant, followed by evapotranspiration. Groundwater was more predominant than surface water. This has been one of the best outstanding advantages in the Srepok watershed.