Streamflow Response to Land Use–Land Cover Change over the Nethravathi River Basin, India

Abstract

Land use–land cover change (LULC) has considerable impacts on hydrologic response at the watershed level. Quantitative assessment of LULC impacts on runoff generations is vital for water resources development. The soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model was used to study the effect of LULC change on streamflows. In addition to this, the present study proposed a newly developed flow-routing model called runoff coefficient routing model (RCRM). This new model is simple and requires limited data, such as precipitation, LULC and streamflows as compared to other models, which require meteorological and many more input data. The Nethravathi River basin was selected for testing the RCRM model with the SWAT model to study land use–land cover change on streamflows. The SWAT model and RCRM model have been calibrated for 2001–2005 and validated for 2006–2009 daily data. Results have shown that the simulated streams are well correlated with observed streamflows with a coefficient of correlation (