Assessing Land Use/Land Cover Change and its Impact on Surface Runoff in the Southern Part of the Țibleș and Rodnei Mountains

Abstract

There is an increasing need to assess and quantify the impact of land use/land cover changes, especially on surface runoff, due to rapid population growth. This study aims to investigate the land use/land cover (LULC) changes over time, for an intense rainfall event in Țibleș, Runc and Sălăuța watersheds, and their impacts on surface runoff for various antecedent moisture conditions (AMC). The GIS-based SCS-CN method and the CORINE land cover (CLC) databases for 2000, 2006 and 2012 laid the foundation for this research. Results indicated that even small land cover changes can significantly affect runoff on the short time scale, with quantitatively different effects regarding moisture conditions. The reduction in forest cover due to agricultural intensification and the conversion from pasture to cropland (especially between 2000 and 2006) resulted in higher surface runoff volumes. These changes mostly affected the middle and downstream catchments of the main rivers which means that over the years, the soil water retaining capacity has decreased.

Keywords

• Runoff volume
• Land use/Land cover changes
• Corine Land Cover
• Țibleș.