Impact of Landuse Land Cover Change on Streamflow of Upper Baitarani River Basin using SWAT

Abstract

Change in land use and land cover pattern influences the hydrology of a watershed by changing its stream flow and groundwater characteristics. The main objective of this study was to assess the land use land cover change impact on stream flow of Upper Baitarani River Basin using SWAT (Soil & Water Assessment Tool). SWAT is a helpful tool to determine the different hydrologic characteristics under varying conditions. In this work, SWAT model was integrated with ArcGIS. The study area was delineated based on Anandpur Hydrological Observation Station and a hydrologic model was set up using SWAT software. The model was run individually using 1995 and 2013 land use in daily time step for the period 1979-2013 with a warm-up period of five years. Calibration and validation of both models were done using global sensitivity approach of Sequential Uncertainty Fitting (SUFI2) algorithm in SWAT Calibration and Uncertainty Procedure (SWAT-CUP) software. The results showed both models worked satisfactorily. In Upper Baitarani river basin built-up area has increased significantly whereas forest cover and agricultural area have decreased in the time period of 18 years (1995-2013). As an effect of this land use, land cover change the mean annual streamflow has increased 3.78%. The results have proven due to land use land cover change, stream flow can change and SWAT can efficiently assess that change.