Influences of Land Use Change on Baseflow in Mountainous Watersheds

Forests

Xu-Dong Huang²  Zhi-Hua Shi²  Nu-Fang Fang³  Xuan Li²  Ge Sun¹ 

[1] College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaCollege of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China;State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China;

关键词: baseflow;    land use;    forest;    farmland;    urban land;    hydrological model;    watershed management;   

DOI  :  10.3390/f7010016

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

It is crucial for effective water resource management in a watershed that the relationship between land use changes and baseflow. This study quantifies the influence of land use changes on the baseflow dynamics using a hydrological model and partial least-squares (PLS) regression in the Upper Du Watershed (8961 km²), China. Our study suggests that forest can be a major factor with a negative impact on the baseflow. Additionally, farmland and urban land have second-order negative effects on the baseflow dynamics. Baseflow increases when forest is replaced by farmland because the evapotranspiration (ET), associated with baseflow recession, is weaker and shorter in duration in the farmland than in the forest. The conversion of forest to urban land increases baseflow owing to the presence of non-contributing impervious surfaces in urban areas, which prevents the urban land from intercepting the baseflow discharge. These results indicate that the baseflow dynamics are closely associated with varying land use types within a watershed. Thus, this study is intended to provide a deeper understanding of the baseflow processes and useful quantitative information on land use factors in watersheds, enabling more informed decision-making in forest and watershed management.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.