Land Use/Land Cover Changes and Its Response to Hydrological Characteristics in the Upper Reaches of Minjiang River

Abstract

Abstract. Land use changes alter the hydrological characteristics of the land surface, and have significant impacts on hydrological cycle and water balance, the analysis of complex effects on natural systems has become one of the main concerns. In this study, we generated the land use conversion matrixes using ArcGIS and selected several landscape indexes (contagion index, CONTAG, Shannon's diversity index, SHDI, etc.) to evaluate the impact of land use/cover changes on hydrological process in the upper reaches of Minjiang River. We also used a statistical regression model which was established based on hydrology and precipitation data during the period of 1959–2008 to simulate the impacts of different land use conditions on rainfall and runoff in different periods. Our results showed that the simulated annual mean flow from 1985 to 1995 and 1995 to 2008 are 9.19 and 1.04 m3 s−1 lower than the measured values, respectively, which implied that the ecological protection measures should be strengthened in the study area. Our study could provide a scientific basis for water resource management and proper land use planning of upper reaches of Minjiang River.

Bivariate Frequency of Meteorological Drought in the Upper Minjiang River Based on Copula Function

“…It is the biggest tributary of the upper Yangtze River. The UMR is located on the southeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with high mountains and deep rivers in the area, its topography is low in the southeast and high in the northwest, which is a typical alpine valley landform [26,27]. However, due to the alternate control of the south tributary of the westerly wind, the warm Indian Ocean current, and the southeast Pacific monsoon, and under the influence of the complex and diverse geographical environment, the area has formed a unique arid valley climate feature: foehn winds in the area are strong, the atmosphere is dry all year round, and the dry and wet seasons are obvious.…”

“…In addition, the UMR is located in the Longmenshan fault zone, the neotectonic movement is strong, which makes the entire mountain ecosystem fragile and changeable. In general, the UMR has a complex geographical environment and a fragile ecological environment [27]. Based on such a severe situation, the UMR was selected as the study area of this article.…”

“…has a complex geographical environment and a fragile ecological environment [27]. Based on such a severe situation, the UMR was selected as the study area of this article.…”

Impact of land-use land cover dynamics on runoff in Panchnoi River basin, North East India

“…The humaninduced LULC change, especially through the development of croplands and built-up lands considerably affects hydrological processes (Hibbert 1967;Bosch & Hewlett 1982) and enhances runoff generation (Garg et al 2018). The conversion of LULC usually has an unintended consequence on the natural environment (Regmi et al 2017;Jaiswal & Amin 2020), especially in the form of enhanced runoff and soil erosion (Guzhaet et al 2018;Ma et al 2018;Messele & Moti 2019). Several studies conducted to envisage the role of LULC pattern on hydrological processes since the mid of the last century (Dwarakish & Ganasri 2015;Zhang et al 2016) and many empirical and mathematical models developed for estimating hydrological processes, especially the surface runoff (Hjelmfelt 1991;Mishra & Singh 2003;Uwizeyimana et al 2018;Matomela et al 2019).…”