The Impacts of Different Land Use Patterns on Water Volume in the Xixian Watershed, China
In this study, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to simulate land-use change effects on water quantity in the upper Huaihe river basin above the Xixian hydrological controlling station with a catchment area of 10,190 km2 by the use of three-phase (1980s、1990s、2000s) land-use maps, soil type map (1:200000), 1980 to 2008 daily time series of rainfall from the upper Huaihe river basin. On the basis of the simulated time series of daily runoff, land-use change effects on spatio-temporal change patterns of runoff coefficients and runoff modules were investigated. The results revealed that under the same condition of soil texture and terrain slope the advantage for runoff generation and the sensitivity of rainfall-runoff relationship to rainfall descended by farmland, paddy field, woodland.The outputs could provide important references for soil and water conservation and river health protection in the upper stream of Huaihe river.