Incorporating the data of different watersheds to estimate the effects of land use change on flood peak and volume using multi-linear regression

Abstract

Affected by human activities, land use and land cover has changed in Daqinghe watershed, China, which resulted in varied runoff. In many hydrological stations, there was a decreasing trend of flood volume and flood peak, but no trend of rainfall depth. In order to quantify the effect of land use change on flood peak and volume, we selected 5 sub-watersheds in Daqinghe watershed, and made a multi-linear regression analysis incorporating the main information in the selected sub-watersheds. The dependent variables are changes in flood volume and flood peak, and the independent variables are the control factors including changes in rainfall depth, intensity, land use area, watershed area, and so on. The rainfall and flood data series are from 1956 to 2005. We divided the data into 2 groups according to flood size―greater than and less than 10 year return period. At last, 4 regression equations were obtained. Based on the multi-linear regression equations and land use data of 1970, 1980, 1995 and 2000, the quantified effects of land use change on flood peak and volume were obtained. Compared with 2000 land use condition, flood volume and peak varied larger in 1970 and 1995 land use conditions, but slightly in 1980 land use condition. Take Zijingguan as an example, flood volume greater than 10 year return period increased 4.08 mm in 1970 land use and decreased 4.90 mm in 1995 land use, but just increased 0.12 mm in 1980 land use. Among all the selected sub-watersheds, land use change had a significant effect on both flood volume and peak in Zijingguan and Zhangfang sub-watersheds. And Manshuihe showed a large variation in 1970 land use condition, other sub-watersheds exhibit a moderate variation due to land use change.