| Title: | Assessing impacts of climate variability and reforestation activities on water resources in the headwaters of the Segura River Basin (SE Spain) |
| Authors: | Senent-Aparicio, J., S. Liu, J. Pérez-Sánchez, A. López-Ballesteros and P. Jimeno-Sáez |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Journal: | Sustainability |
| Volume (Issue): | 10(9) |
| Pages: | |
| Article ID: | 3277 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/su10093277 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | climate change and land use change |
| Secondary Application Category: | hydrologic assessment |
| Watershed Description: | 235 km^2 subwatershed of the Segura river, which drains to the Anchuricas reservoir in southeast Spain |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | Climate change and the land-use and land-cover changes (LULC) resulting from anthropic
activity are important factors in the degradation of an ecosystem and in the availability of a basin’s
water resources. To know how these activities affect the quantity of the water resources of basins,
such as the Segura River Basin, is of vital importance. In this work, the Soil and Water Assessment
Tool (SWAT) was used for the study of the above mentioned impacts. The model was validated by
obtaining a Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) of 0.88 and a percent bias (PBIAS) of 17.23%, indicating
that SWAT accurately replicated monthly streamflow. Next, land-use maps for the years of 1956
and 2007 were used to establish a series of scenarios that allowed us to evaluate the effects of these
activities on both joint and individual water resources. A reforestation plan applied in the basin
during the 1970s caused that the forest area had almost doubled, whereas the agricultural areas and
shrubland had been reduced by one-third. These modifications, together with the effect of climate
change, have led to a decrease of 26.3% in the quantity of generated water resources, not only due to
climate change but also due to the increase in forest area. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | SWAT; trend analysis; land-use change; climate variability; reforestation; Segura
River Basin |