scholarly journals Impacts of forest changes on hydrology: a case study of large watersheds in the upper reaches of Minjiang River watershed in China

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 4279-4290 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Cui ◽  
S. Liu ◽  
X. Wei
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Yangtze River Basin ◽  
Forest Harvesting ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
River Watershed ◽  
Minjiang River ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Hydrological Effects

Abstract. Quantifying the effects of forest changes on hydrology in large watersheds is important for designing forest or land management and adaptation strategies for watershed ecosystem sustainability. Minjiang River watershed, located in the upper reach of the Yangtze River basin, plays a strategic role in the environmental protection and economic and social well-being for both the watershed and the entire Yangtze River basin. The watershed lies in the transition zone from Sichuan Basin to Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with a size of 24 000 km2. Due to its strategic significance, severe historic deforestation and high sensitivity to climate change, the watershed has long been recognized as one of the highest priority watersheds in China for scientific research and resource management. The purpose of this review paper is to provide a state-of-the-art summary on what we have learned from several recently completed research programs (one of them known as "973 of the China National Major Fundamental Science" from 2002 to 2008). This summary paper focused on how land cover or forest change affected hydrology at both forest stand and watershed scales in this large watershed. Inclusion of two different spatial scales is useful, because the results from a small spatial scale (e.g. forest stand level) can help interpret the findings on a large spatial scale. Our review suggests that historic forest harvesting or land cover change has caused significant water yield increase due to reduction of forest canopy interception and evapotranspiration caused by removal of forest vegetation on both spatial scales. The impact magnitude caused by forest harvesting indicates that the hydrological effects of forest or land cover changes can be as important as those caused by climate change, while the opposite impact directions suggest their offsetting effects on water yield in the Minjiang River watershed. In addition, different types of forests have different magnitudes of evapotranspiration (ET), with the lowest in old-growth natural coniferous forests (Abies faxoniana Rehd. et Wils.) and the highest in coniferous plantations (e.g. Picea asperata Mast.) among major forest types in the study watershed. This suggests that selection of different types of forests can have an important role in ET and consequently water yield. Our synthesis indicates that future reforestation and climate change would likely produce the hydrological effects in the same direction and thus place double the pressure on water resource as both key drivers may lead to water yield reduction. The findings can support designing management strategies for protection of watershed ecological functions in the context of future land cover and climate changes.

scholarly journals Impacts of forest changes on hydrology: a case study of large watersheds in the upper reach of Yangtze River Basin

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 6507-6531 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Cui ◽  
S. Liu ◽  
X. Wei
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Yangtze River ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Yangtze River Basin ◽  
Forest Harvesting ◽  
Forest Stand ◽  
Minjiang River ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Hydrological Effects

Abstract. Quantifying the effects of forest changes on hydrology in large watersheds is important for designing forest or land management and adaptation strategies for watershed ecosystem sustainability. Minjiang River watershed located in the upper reach of the Yangtze River Basin plays a strategic role in environmental protection and economic and social wellbeing for both the watershed and the entire Yangtze Basin. The watershed lies in the transition zone from Sichuan Basin to Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with a size of 24 000 km2. Due to its strategic significance, severe historic deforestation and high sensitivity to climate change, the watershed has long been one of the highest priority watersheds in China for scientific research and resource management. The purpose of this review paper is to provide a state-of-the-art summary on what we have learned from several recently-completed research programs (one of them known as "973 of the China National Major Fundamental Science" with funding of $3.5 million USD in 2002 to 2008). This summary paper focused on how land cover or forest change affected hydrology at both forest stand and watershed scales in this large watershed. Inclusion of two different spatial scales is useful because the results from a small spatial scale (e.g. forest stand level) can help interpret the findings at a large spatial scale. Our review suggests that historic forest harvesting or land cover change has caused significant water increase due to reduction of forest canopy interception and evapotranspiration caused by removal of forest vegetation at both spatial scales. The impact magnitudes caused by forest harvesting indicate that the hydrological effects of forest or land cover changes can be as important as those caused by climate change, while the opposite impact directions suggest their offsetting effects on water yields in the Minjiang River watershed. In addition, different types of forests have different magnitudes of ET with old-growth natural coniferous (Abies) forests being the lowest and the coniferous plantations (e.g. Spruce) being the highest among major forest types in the study watershed, suggesting that selection of different types of forests can have an important role in ET and consequently water yields. Our synthesis indicates that future reforestation and climate change would likely produce the hydrological effects in the same direction and thus place double pressures on water resource as both key drivers may lead to water yield reduction. Implications of the findings are also discussed in the context of future land cover and climate changes.

scholarly journals Watershed Hydrological Response to Combined Land Use/Land Cover and Climate Change in Highland Ethiopia: Finchaa Catchment

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wakjira Takala Dibaba ◽  
Tamene Adugna Demissie ◽  
Konrad Miegel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Surface Runoff ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Ensemble Mean ◽  
The Future

Land use/land cover (LULC) and climate change affect the availability of water resources by altering the magnitude of surface runoff, aquifer recharge, and river flows. The evaluation helps to identify the level of water resources exposure to the changes that could help to plan for potential adaptive capacity. In this research, Cellular Automata (CA)-Markov in IDRISI software was used to predict the future LULC scenarios and the ensemble mean of four regional climate models (RCMs) in the coordinated regional climate downscaling experiment (CORDEX)-Africa was used for the future climate scenarios. Distribution mapping was used to bias correct the RCMs outputs, with respect to the observed precipitation and temperature. Then, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to evaluate the watershed hydrological responses of the catchment under separate, and combined, LULC and climate change. The result shows the ensemble mean of the four RCMs reported precipitation decline and increase in future temperature under both representative concentration pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). The increases in both maximum and minimum temperatures are higher for higher emission scenarios showing that RCP8.5 projection is warmer than RCP4.5. The changes in LULC brings an increase in surface runoff and water yield and a decline in groundwater, while the projected climate change shows a decrease in surface runoff, groundwater and water yield. The combined study of LULC and climate change shows that the effect of the combined scenario is similar to that of climate change only scenario. The overall decline of annual flow is due to the decline in the seasonal flows under combined scenarios. This could bring the reduced availability of water for crop production, which will be a chronic issue of subsistence agriculture. The possibility of surface water and groundwater reduction could also affect the availability of water resources in the catchment and further aggravate water stress in the downstream. The highly rising demands of water, owing to socio-economic progress, population growth and high demand for irrigation water downstream, in addition to the variability temperature and evaporation demands, amplify prolonged water scarcity. Consequently, strong land-use planning and climate-resilient water management policies will be indispensable to manage the risks.

scholarly journals Biophysical and hydrological effects of future climate change including trends in CO2, in the St. Joseph River watershed, Eastern Corn Belt

2017 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 280-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruoyu Wang ◽  
Laura C. Bowling ◽  
Keith A. Cherkauer ◽  
Raj Cibin ◽  
Younggu Her ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Corn Belt ◽  
River Watershed ◽  
Hydrological Effects

scholarly journals Estimation of water yield in the hydrographic basins of southern Ecuador

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saula Minga-León ◽  
Miguel Angel Gómez-Albores ◽  
Khalidou M. Bâ ◽  
Luis Balcázar ◽  
Luis Ricardo Manzano-Solís ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Soil Depth ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Southern Region ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Water Production ◽  
Yield Model ◽  
Available Water Content

Abstract. Humans greatly benefit from natural water resources, also known as hydrological ecosystem services. However, these services may be reduced by population growth, land use changes, and climate change. As these problems become more critical, the need to quantify water resources increases. The estimation of water yield and its distribution are of great importance for the management of water resources. In the present study, the average annual water yield of the hydrographic basins in the southern region of Ecuador was estimated for the 1970–2015 period using the InVEST water yield model based on the Budyko framework. The model estimates annual surface run-off at the pixel, sub-basin, and basin level considering the following variables: precipitation, actual evapotranspiration, land cover/use, soil depth, and available water content for plants. The model was calibrated by varying the ecohydrological parameter Z to reduce error between estimated and observed water yield. The results showed that the modeling of water yield in the majority of the hydrographic basins was satisfactory, allowing the basins to be ranked according to their importance for water production. The Mayo and Zamora basins had the highest water production, corresponding with 934 and 1218 mm per year, respectively, while the Alamor and Catamayo basins had the lowest water production, corresponding with 206 and 291 mm per year, respectively. The present study provides an initial estimate of water yield at the basin level in the southern region of Ecuador, and the results can be used to evaluate the impacts of land cover changes and climate change over time.

scholarly journals Current challenges of implementing anthropogenic land-use and land-cover change in models contributing to climate change assessments

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard Prestele ◽  
Almut Arneth ◽  
Alberte Bondeau ◽  
Nathalie de Noblet-Ducoudré ◽  
Thomas A. M. Pugh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Land Use Modeling ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Anthropogenic Land Use

Abstract. Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) represents one of the key drivers of global environmental change. However, the processes and drivers of anthropogenic land-use activity are still overly simplistically implemented in terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs). The published results of these models are used in major assessments of processes and impacts of global environmental change, such as the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Fully coupled models of climate, land use and biogeochemical cycles to explore land use–climate interactions across spatial scales are currently not available. Instead, information on land use is provided as exogenous data from the land-use change modules of integrated assessment models (IAMs) to TBMs. In this article, we discuss, based on literature review and illustrative analysis of empirical and modeled LULCC data, three major challenges of this current LULCC representation and their implications for land use–climate interaction studies: (I) provision of consistent, harmonized, land-use time series spanning from historical reconstructions to future projections while accounting for uncertainties associated with different land-use modeling approaches, (II) accounting for sub-grid processes and bidirectional changes (gross changes) across spatial scales, and (III) the allocation strategy of independent land-use data at the grid cell level in TBMs. We discuss the factors that hamper the development of improved land-use representation, which sufficiently accounts for uncertainties in the land-use modeling process. We propose that LULCC data-provider and user communities should engage in the joint development and evaluation of enhanced LULCC time series, which account for the diversity of LULCC modeling and increasingly include empirically based information about sub-grid processes and land-use transition trajectories, to improve the representation of land use in TBMs. Moreover, we suggest concentrating on the development of integrated modeling frameworks that may provide further understanding of possible land–climate–society feedbacks.

scholarly journals Extended Dependence of the Hydrological Regime on the Land Cover Change in the Three-North Region of China: An Evaluation under Future Climate Conditions

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Yao ◽  
Xianhong Xie ◽  
Shanshan Meng ◽  
Bowen Zhu ◽  
Kang Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Ecological Restoration ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Hydrological Regime ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Hydrological Effects

The hydrological regime in arid and semi-arid regions is quite sensitive to climate and land cover changes (LCC). The Three-North region (TNR) in China experiences diverse climate conditions, from arid to humid zones. In this region, substantial LCC has occurred over the past decades due to ecological restoration programs and urban expansion. At a regional scale, the hydrological effects of LCC have been demonstrated to be less observable than the effects of climate change, but it is unclear whether or not the effects of LCC may be intensified by future climate conditions. In this study, we employed remote sensing datasets and a macro-scale hydrological modeling to identify the dependence of the future hydrological regime of the TNR on past LCC. The hydrological effects over the period from 2020–2099 were evaluated based on a Representative Concentration Pathway climate scenario. The results indicated that the forest area increased in the northwest (11,691 km2) and the north (69 km2) of China but declined in the northeast (30,042 km2) over the past three decades. Moreover, the urban area has expanded by 1.3% in the TNR. Under the future climate condition, the hydrological regime will be influenced significantly by LCC. Those changes from 1986 to 2015 may alter the future hydrological cycle mainly by promoting runoff (3.24 mm/year) and decreasing evapotranspiration (3.23 mm/year) over the whole region. The spatial distribution of the effects may be extremely uneven: the effects in humid areas would be stronger than those in other areas. Besides, with rising temperatures and precipitation from 2020 to 2099, the LCC may heighten the risk of dryland expansion and flooding more than climate change alone. Despite uncertainties in the datasets and methods, the regional-scale hydrological model provides new insights into the extended impacts of ecological restoration and urbanization on the hydrological regime of the TNR.

scholarly journals Regional Impacts of Climate and Land Cover on Ecosystem Water Retention Services in the Upper Yangtze River Basin

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5300
Author(s):  
Pei Xu ◽  
Yingman Guo ◽  
Bin Fu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Yangtze River ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Yangtze River Basin ◽  
Upper Yangtze River ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Upper Yangtze River

Water retention is an important factor in ecosystem services, owing to its relationships with climate and land-cover change; however, quantifying the independent and combined impacts of these variables remains a challenge. We use scenario analysis and the InVEST model to assess individual or combined impacts of climate and land cover on water retention in the Upper Yangtze River Basin. Water retention decreased from 1986 to 2015 at a rate of 2.97 mm/10a in response to increasing precipitation (3.94 mm/10a) and potential evapotranspiration (16.47 mm/10a). The rate of water retention change showed regional variability (from 68 to −18 mm/a), with some eastern regions experiencing an increase and most other regions experiencing a decrease. Farmland showed the highest decrease (10,772 km2), with land mainly converted into forest (58.17%) and shrub land (21.13%) from 2000 to 2015. The impact of climate change (−12.02 mm) on water retention generally was greater than the impact of land cover change (−4.14 mm), at the basin scale. Among 22 climate zones, 77.27% primarily were impacted by climate change; 22.73% primarily were impacted by land cover change. Our results demonstrate that both individualistic and integrated approaches toward climate and vegetation management is necessary to mitigate the impacts of climate change on water resources.

Modeling Hydrological Functioning of a Drainage Basin With Relation to Land Use Change in the Context of Climate Change

2019 ◽  
pp. 194-213
Author(s):  
Reda Rihane ◽  
Abdellatif Khattabi ◽  
Nabil Rifai ◽  
Said Lahssini
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Forest Harvesting ◽  
Peak Flows ◽  
Water Flows ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hydrological Functioning

Ourika basin in Morocco has very steep slopes with impermeable ground favoring water flows and flooding. History has shown deadly flood events. Floods are becoming recurrent and exacerbated not only by human activities that degrade soil and vegetation cover, accelerating erosion and quick water flows, but also by climate change. In fact, the basin has experienced a very strong dynamic of its vegetation cover, during the last 30 years, and has been subject to climate change impacts. This study is devoted to evaluating the impact of land cover change, mainly vegetation cover, on hydrological functioning of the basin. The HEC-HMS model was used to simulate basin hydrological response, according to two scenarios of land cover change. The first scenario simulates deforestation and urbanization impacts on peak flows, showing an increase of the peak flow by 31.68%. The second evaluates the impact of both reforestation actions and proscription of forest harvesting in the region. The simulated results showed a decline of 17.25% in peak flows, except for heavy precipitation events.

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