| Title: | Land use change impacts on hydrology in the Nenjiang River Basin, northeast China |
| Authors: | Li F., G. Zhang, H. Li and W. Lu |
| Year: | 2019 |
| Journal: | Forests |
| Volume (Issue): | 10(6) |
| Pages: | |
| Article ID: | 476 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/f10060476 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | land use change |
| Secondary Application Category: | hydrologic assessment |
| Watershed Description: | 297,000 km^2 Nenjiang River, a tributary of the Songhua River located in northeast China. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | The objectives of this study were to assess land use changes and their hydrological impacts
in the Nenjiang River Basin (NRB). The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was employed
to evaluate the impacts of land use changes. The Cellular Automata-Markov model was used to
predict a land use map in 2038. Streamflow under each land use state was simulated by the SWAT
model. The results showed that there was a significant expansion of agriculture area at the expense of
large areas of grassland, wetland, and forest during 1975–2000. The land use changes during the
period of 1975 to 2000 had decreased the water yield (3.5%), surface runo (1.7%), and baseflow (19%)
while they increased the annual evapotranspiration (2.1%). For impacts of individual land use type,
the forest proved to have reduced streamflow in the flood season (10%–28%) and increased surface
runo in the drought season (20%–38%). Conversely, grassland, dry land, and paddy land scenarios
resulted in increase of streamflow during summer months by 7%–37% and a decrease of streamflow
in the cold seasons by 11.7%–59.7%. When the entire basin was changed to wetland, streamflow
reduced over the whole year, with the largest reduction during January to March. The 2038 land
use condition is expected to increase the annual water yield, surface runo and wet season flow,
and reduce evapotranspiration and baseflow. These results could help to improve sustainable land
use management and water utilization in the NRB. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | land use change; SWAT model; Nenjiang River; hydrology; forest; wetland |