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Land Use-Land Cover Changes and Implications in Runoff and Flooding...
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Land Use-Land Cover Changes and Implications in Runoff and Flooding Phenomena

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2024) | Viewed by 6617

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Aris Psilovikos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sustainable Water Resources Management, Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment, School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Thessaly, Odos Fytokou, 38446 N. Ionia Magnisias, Greece
Interests: water resources simulation, optimization and management; water quality monitoring, simulation and management; temporal and spatial analysis of water quality and quantity parameters; water balance in catchment areas; erosion, floods and sedimentation in catchment areas; artificial neural networks (ANN); Geographic Information System (GIS); Remote Sensing (RS)
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Land use–land cover changes and climate change constitute the foremost drivers of hydrological processes, influencing the flow regimes in catchments, while posing severe levels of flooding threat. Deforestation from forest fires and human interference, urbanization, agricultural expansion, and geomorphological changes of river channels are attributed to both natural causes and expansive human behavior, triggering dramatic changes in infiltration rates, surface roughness, water-holding capacity, overland runoff volume, erosion, and sediment deposition. The behavior of vegetated land is mainly regulated by plant roots, while an increase in impervious areas can result in an increase in streamflow and recurrent flooding. Land Use and Land Cover  enhanced runoff generation constitutes an adverse effect of high concern for a long-term future period, after the change occurrence. Climate change alters the precipitation spatiotemporal regime, including the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events, which are expected to affect the magnitude of streamflow in many wildland and urban environments worldwide. The negative effects of land use–land cover changes cover not only specific sites but also downstream flood zone areas, prioritizing the need to explore the confounding effects on surface runoff and sediment loss. The main goal of this Special Issue is to bring together studies on impacts of land use–land cover changes on hydrological hazards, such as, runoff, floods, erosion, sediment deposition, desertification, and land degradation in different regions of the world.

Prof. Dr. Aris Psilovikos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • land use–land cover change
  • climate change
  • anthropogenic impacts
  • hydrological hazards
  • surface runoff
  • flooding phenomena
  • erosion
  • desertification
  • sediment deposition

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 6204 KiB  
Article
Rice Terraces Enhanced the Hydrological Stability of Small Watershed with LUCC—A Case Study of Xinhua Basin
by Chuxiong Deng, Yaqun Li, Yaojun Liu, Changchang Liu and Guangjie Zhang
Water 2024, 16(5), 712; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16050712 - 28 Feb 2024
Viewed by 851
Abstract
Rice terraces are crucial for agriculture in China’s southern mountainous regions. Land use and land cover change (LUCC) in these areas impact hydrology, but our understanding is limited. In this study, we applied the hydrological assessment tool SWAT to a selected small watershed [...] Read more.
Rice terraces are crucial for agriculture in China’s southern mountainous regions. Land use and land cover change (LUCC) in these areas impact hydrology, but our understanding is limited. In this study, we applied the hydrological assessment tool SWAT to a selected small watershed in the rice terrace-dense area of central Hunan province, China. This study covered four LUCC periods over the past 40 years and was simulated at annual and monthly scales. The results showed that from 1980 to 2020, the areas of paddy fields and drylands decreased by 4.19% and 5.76%, respectively, while the areas of forests and construction land increased by 1.14% and 92.48%, respectively. During the past period, LUCC led to a decrease of 1.77% and 2.49% in runoff and infiltration, respectively, and an increase of 1.03% in ET. However, the water yield remained almost unchanged, indicating that the rice terrace plays a positive role in maintaining stable watershed water yield under LUCC. The results of the sub-basin analysis indicated that the transformation of paddy fields and forests directly determines the trend of hydrological changes. Land use type had the most significant impact on the runoff of the rice-terrace watershed, with the proportions of paddy fields and forests being the most influential factors. Paddy fields significantly influenced the stability of runoff at the watershed scale, suggesting that a high paddy field ratio doesn’t ensure sustainability. This study offers valuable insights for managing small watershed terraces, land use planning, and achieving sustainable development in the watershed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Use-Land Cover Changes and Implications in Runoff and Flooding Phenomena)
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16 pages, 2926 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Runoff According to Land-Use Change in the Upper Hutuo River Basin
by Bin Liu, Jie Yang, Jinxia Sha, Yun Luo, Xian Zhao and Ruiting Liu
Water 2023, 15(6), 1138; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15061138 - 15 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1618
Abstract
Land use affects regional hydrological processes. The alteration of regional distributions of vegetation, crop types, and land-use patterns for construction has a significant impact on the runoff process and influences the water cycle in watersheds. Studies on runoff variations in the Hutuo River [...] Read more.
Land use affects regional hydrological processes. The alteration of regional distributions of vegetation, crop types, and land-use patterns for construction has a significant impact on the runoff process and influences the water cycle in watersheds. Studies on runoff variations in the Hutuo River Basin have concentrated on climate change and the effect of human activities without adequate attention paid to land-use changes. In order to investigate the response of runoff to land-use changes in the upper Hutuo River Basin, a soil and water assessment model was used in this study to compare and analyze the changes in runoff under five land-use scenarios from 1980–2020. The results show that the area of farmland, forest land, and grassland in the watershed gradually decreased from 1980 to 2020, with a total decrease of 3.1%, while the area of urban construction land increased rapidly by 1.5 times. Corresponding with the trend of land-use change, the differences between the simulated and natural values for regional flood peak and annual runoff increased with time, which is in line with the changing land-use trends. From 1960–2020, the differences between the simulated and natural values for the flood peaks of the five land-use scenarios were −16.8, −6.7, −3.5, 4.6, and 9.3%, respectively, and the errors between the simulated and natural values for annual runoff were −6.7, −4.4, −2.0, −2.6, and 10.8%, respectively. Overall, the increase in urban construction land and decrease in farming, forest area, and grassland has caused the regional flood peak and annual runoff volume to increase in the upper Hutuo River Basin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Use-Land Cover Changes and Implications in Runoff and Flooding Phenomena)
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20 pages, 4566 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Evolution of Climatic and Hydrological Variables in the Tagus River Basin, Spain
by Gabriel Mezger, Lucia De Stefano and Marta González del Tánago
Water 2022, 14(5), 818; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14050818 - 5 Mar 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3016
Abstract
During the second half of the 20th century, several Spanish rivers experienced a decrease in the availability of water resources which coincided with an increase in human water demands. This situation is expected to be exacerbated by climate change. This study analyses the [...] Read more.
During the second half of the 20th century, several Spanish rivers experienced a decrease in the availability of water resources which coincided with an increase in human water demands. This situation is expected to be exacerbated by climate change. This study analyses the evolution of annual streamflow in 16 sub-basins of the Tagus River basin (Spain) during the 1950–2010 period and its relationship with selected variables. Our main objective is to characterize changes in in-stream flows and to identify what factors could have contributed to them. First, we used non-parametric tests to detect trends in the hydro-climatic series. Then, we analyzed changes in the runoff coefficient and applied regression-based techniques to detect anthropic drivers that could have influenced the observed trends. The analysis revealed a general decreasing trend in streamflow and an increasing trend in air temperature, while trends in precipitation are less clear. Residuals from regression models indicate that the evolution of several non-climatic factors is likely to have influenced the decline in streamflow. Our results suggest that the combination of the expansion of forested areas (a 60% increase from 1950 to 2010) and irrigated land (a 400% increase since 1950) could have played an important role in the reduction of streamflow in the Tagus basin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Use-Land Cover Changes and Implications in Runoff and Flooding Phenomena)
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