| Title: | Effects of climate change and human activities on soil erosion in the Xihe River Basin, China |
| Authors: | Guo, S., Z. Zhu and L. Lyu |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Journal: | Water |
| Volume (Issue): | 10(8) |
| Pages: | |
| Article ID: | 1085 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/w10081085 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic and pollutant |
| Primary Application Category: | climate change and human activities change |
| Secondary Application Category: | sediment loss and transport |
| Watershed Description: | 1,047 km^2 Xihe River, a tributary of the Taizihe River, located in the eastern part of Liaoning Province in northeast China. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | Climate change and human activities are the major factors affecting runoff and sediment
load. We analyzed the inter-annual variation trends of the annual rainfall, air temperature, runoff and
sediment load in the Xihe River Basin from 1969–2015. Pettitt’s test and the Soil and Water Assessment
Tool (SWAT) model were used to detect sudden changes in hydro-meteorological variables and
simulate the basin hydrological cycle, respectively. According to the simulation results, we explored
spatial distribution of soil erosion in the watershed by utilizing ArcGIS10.0, analyzed the average
soil erosion modulus by different types of land use, and quantified the contributions of climate
change and human activities to runoff and sediment load in changes. The results showed that:
(1) From 1969–2015, both rainfall and air temperature increased, and air temperature increased
significantly (p < 0.01) at 0.326 ◦C/10 a (annual). Runoff and sediment load decreased, and sediment
load decreased significantly (p < 0.01) at 1.63 × 105
t/10 a. In 1988, air temperature experienced
a sudden increased and sediment load decreased. (2) For runoff, R
2 and Nash and Sutcliffe efficiency
coefficient (Ens) were 0.92 and 0.91 during the calibration period and 0.90 and 0.87 during the
validation period, for sediment load, R
2 and Ens were 0.60 and 0.55 during the calibration period
and 0.70 and 0.69 during the validation period, meeting the model’s applicability requirements.
(3) Soil erosion was worse in the upper basin than other regions, and highest in cultivated land.
Climate change exacerbates runoff and sediment load with overall contribution to the total change
of −26.54% and −8.8%, respectively. Human activities decreased runoff and sediment load with
overall contribution to the total change of 126.54% and 108.8% respectively. The variation of runoff
and sediment load in the Xihe River Basin is largely caused by human activities. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | climate change; human activities; soil erosion; SWAT model; Xihe River Basin |