**5. Conclusions**

With the gradual increase in urban areas from 1980 to 2015, a major fraction of land was converted to areas with poor infiltration and low potential storage, which significantly influenced surface runoff. In order to analyse the effect of land use change due to urbanisation on surface runoff, we used GIS-based SCS–CN model. The change in average runoff during the study period was determined, and relation between land use and runoff was obtained. A relation between rainfall and SCS runoff showed that the performance of SCS–CN model is suitable for runoff estimation. The GIS-based approach seemed to be an efficient tool for assessing the land use change and surface runoff through spatial analysis. Hence, the conclusions derived are as follows:


The areas with higher runoff, especially in Xiamen Island, dominated by urban built up land, should be given more attention during land use planning. Forestland, grassland, and farmland in the area have a higher significance for storing runoff. Therefore, these natural green infrastructures should be considered as potential areas for runoff storage. Further research can be focused in exploring the effectiveness of natural infrastructure and nature-based solutions for runoff mitigation and reducing urban flood risks.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, S.S. and S.C.; Methodology, S.S.; Software, S.S., L.W. and S.D.; Validation, S.S. and L.W.; Formal Analysis, S.S.; Investigation, S.S. and B.M.; Resources, L.W.; Data Curation, S.S. and S.D.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, S.S.; Writing—Review and Editing, S.S, S.C., L.X. and B.M.; Visualization, S.S.; Supervision, S.C. and L.X.; Project Administration, S.C. and L.X.; Funding Acquisition, S.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41661144032, 42007418), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0506603), the FJIRSM&IUE Joint Research Fund (Y8L0971), and the Fujian Provincial Natural Science Foundation (2019J05160), China.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

**Acknowledgments:** Authors would like to extend their sincere gratitude to the USGS and Geographical Information Monitoring Cloud Platform is acknowledged for making the Land use data product available for the study. We also immensely thank the UCAS International Scholarship for the international Masters Student program. We thank the anonymous reviewers, editor for their constructive comments on the manuscript.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
