Assessing and Quantifying Impacts of Land Use and Climate Changes on Hydrological Processes: Review

Abstract

Land use and climate changes have become prominent drivers of changes in hydrologic responses. Understanding impacts of land use and climate changes on hydrology is vital for water resources management. Many studies have used computer models to examine the linkages and interactions between land use, climate and hydrologic responses. The objective of this paper is to summarize these studies and provide critical review of limitations of the methodologies. Approaches used to analyze the impacts of land use and climate changes on hydrologic responses can be grouped as (i) the impacts of climate changes, (ii) the impacts of land use changes, and (iii) the combined and separate impacts of land use and climate changes. Findings of this review include (i) the combined effects of land use and climate changes are different from the separate impacts, (ii) effects of land use and climate changes on hydrologic responses vary from basin to basin depending on the basin’s physical characteristics, climate condition, and the scope of climate change and land use change. These findings imply that basin specific impact analysis using integrated modeling approach that examines the combined effects of land use and climate changes is decisive for planning and management of water resources.

Keywords: land use change; climate change; integrated watershed modeling; combined and separate impacts; hydrologic impacts of land use change; hydrologic impacts of climate change.