How land use/land cover changes can affect water, flooding and sedimentation in a tropical watershed: a case study using distributed modeling in the Upper Citarum watershed, Indonesia

Abstract

Human activity has produced severe LULC changes within the Upper Citarum watershed and these changes are predicted to continue in the future. With an increase in population parallel to a 141% increment in urban areas, a reduction of rice fields and the replacement of forests with cultivations have been found in the past. Accordingly, LCM model was used to forecast the LULC in 2029. A distributed model called TETIS was implemented in the Upper Citarum watershed to assess the impact of the different historical and future LULC scenarios on its water and sediment cycles. This model was calibrated and validated with different LULCs. For the implementation of the sediment sub-model, it was crucial to use the bathymetric information of the reservoir located at the catchment’s outlet. Deforestation and urbanization have been shown to be the most influential factors affecting the alteration of the hydrological and sedimentological processes in the Upper Citarum watershed. The change of LULC decreases evapotranspiration and as a direct consequence, the water yield increased by 15% and 40% during the periods 1994–2014 and 2014–2029, respectively. These increments are caused by the rise of three components in the runoff: overland flow, interflow and base flow. Apart from that, these changes in LULC increased the area of non-tolerable erosion from 412 km2 in 1994 to 499 km2 in 2029. The mean sediment yield increased from 3.1 Mton yr−1 in the 1994 LULC scenario to 6.7 Mton yr−1 in the 2029 LULC scenario. An increment of this magnitude will be catastrophic for the operation of the Saguling Dam.