Water (Jan 2020)

Effect of Land Use/Cover Change on the Hydrological Response of a Southern Center Basin of Chile

  • Rebeca Martínez-Retureta,
  • Mauricio Aguayo,
  • Alejandra Stehr,
  • Sabine Sauvage,
  • Cristian Echeverría,
  • José-Miguel Sánchez-Pérez

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/w12010302
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
p. 302

Abstract

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Several impacts over ecosystem services have been produced by land use/cover changes, placing it as one of the main factors driving global environmental change. In the present study, the SWAT model was used to assess the effect of land use/cover changes on the hydrology response in the Andalien river basin from the south-central zone of Chile. Three land use/cover scenarios (LU_1986, LU_2001, and LU_2011) were compared over a period of 30 years (1984−2013) to remove the effect of climate variability on hydrology. The results show a significant decrease in total annual flows among the three LU scenarios. The greater differences in the annual flows of 25.05 m3/s were observed between LU_1986 and LU_2011 scenarios. The hydrological cycle dynamics in the basin show an increasing trend of evapotranspiration and surface flows with a significant decrease in percolation and lateral flow on a monthly and seasonal scale. This behavior can be explained by the increasing percentage of the basin area covered by exotic plantations, from 35.22% to 63.93% during the period. The evidence of these changes and the evaluation of their effects are particularly relevant for the long-term sustainable management of water resources.

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