Abstract
Land use changes are important aspects of global change and affect regional water cycles, environmental quality, biodiversity and terrestrial ecosystems. To understand the temporal and spatial land use change in the Jialing River Basin and its impacts on the hydrological cycle, land use change models and the variable infiltration capacity (VIC) model were applied separately to the Jialing River Basin. Real change and final change were analyzed to determine the consequences of land use changes and their hydrological consequences. Real change is defined as the total variation during a fixed period, including increases and decreases. Thus, real change is the sum of the absolute values of the decrease and the increase. Final change is defined as the difference between the beginning and end of a given period for a specific factor. Overall, the amounts of settlement and shrub land area changed significantly in the entire Jialing River (with final change rates of 20.77% and −16.07%, respectively, and real change rates of 34.2% and 30.1%, respectively, from 1985 to 1995, as well as final and real change rates of 29.37%, 12.40%, 39.9% and 32.8%, respectively, from 1995 to 2000). Compared with the final change, the real change highlighted the rate of change and the change in woodland area. The land use changes in the Lueyang (LY), Shehong (SH) and Fengtan (FT) subcatchments were more dynamic than in the other subcatchments. The economy, population and macro-policy were the main factors responsible for driving the land use changes. The decrease in woodland area in the LY subcatchment corresponded with an increase in evapotranspiration (ET) and with decreases in the other hydrological elements. Overall, the final changes in the hydrological elements in the LY, SH and FT subcatchments were not significant due to the average and compensation effects. The LY subcatchment was mainly affected by the average effect, whereas the SH and FT subcatchments were affected by the average and compensation effects. The use of real change can increase the detectability of hydrological elements changes caused by land use change in SH and FT. The results of this study provide new insights regarding the examination of the effects of land use changes on hydrological regimes. These results are useful for land use planners and water resource managers.
Highlights
With the intensification of several global issues, including increasing population, food shortages, environmental pollution and climate change, global change has become one of the most popular areas of research, within which land use change is important [1]
This study found that the woodland area in the Jialing River Basin was 31,670 km2 in the 1980s and 32,193 km2 in the 1990s, which resulted in a final change of 523 km2 (Table 2)
Both the change rate and the change in the area of woodlands were highlighted. This in-and-out phenomenon directly affected the detectability of changes in the hydrological regimes that were caused by land use changes, because the changes in the hydrological elements were normally expressed as an overall value for a catchment or a statistical unit in which the in-and-out phenomenon existed
Summary
With the intensification of several global issues, including increasing population, food shortages, environmental pollution and climate change, global change has become one of the most popular areas of research, within which land use change is important [1]. Many studies have shown that land use changes are closely linked to hydrological processes. The main effects of land use changes on the water cycle are changes in evapotranspiration (ET), changes in the soil’s ability to hold water and changes in the abilities of vegetation to intercept precipitation [2]. Land use change extensively modifies the pathway and the surface roughness and affects the timing of runoff, which leads to changes in the river flow (for example, flood peak appearance time and volume). Dunn and Mackay [3], Matheussen et al [4], Olchev et al [5], Jin [6] and Mao and Cherkauer [7]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
