Prioritizing Structural Management by Quantifying the Effect of Land Use and Land Cover on Watershed Runoff and Sediment Yield

Ashok Mishra (), S. Kar () and V. Singh ()

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2007, vol. 21, issue 11, 1899-1913

Abstract: Hydrological processes in a mixed land use watershed are significantly influenced by land use (LU) and land cover (LC). In order to quantify the effect of LU/LC, topography, and morphology, runoff and sediment yield of a small multivegetated watershed in a sub-humid subtropical region in India were simulated by the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and were compared with measured values. The mixed land use watershed displayed a synchronized runoff response to monsoon rains. Measured runoff and sediment yield varied one sub-watershed to another and ranged, respectively, from 256.33 to 367.83 mm and from 0.27 to 11.65 t/ha for 734.90 mm of rainfall in 2000 and from 310.36 to 393.49 mm and from 0.84 to 10.71 t/ha for 765.50 mm of rainfall in 2001. The correlation coefficient between rainfall and runoff was 0.86, that between runoff and sediment yield was 0.56, and that between rainfall and sediment yield was 0.55. The sub-watersheds with relatively high forest cover (SWS1 and SWS2) showed significantly less runoff and sediment yield (310.36 mm and 0.84 t/ha), whereas a sub-watershed with more area under cultivation produced higher runoff (393.5 mm) and higher sediment yield (11.65 t/ha). Measured and model simulated estimates of runoff and sediment yield from different sub-watersheds were employed to prioritize control measures in the watershed comprising areas under cultivation, waste, fallow and eroded land, and forest and bushes. The average estimates of sediment yield from different sub-watersheds were used to prioritize the checkdam construction as an effective measure to control sediment transport to downstream water resources. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007

Keywords: watershed; land use/land cover; runoff; sediment yield; SWAT model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11269-006-9136-x (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:21:y:2007:i:11:p:1899-1913

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-006-9136-x

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().