Land-use changes and precipitation cycles to understand hydrodynamic responses in semiarid Mediterranean karstic watersheds
Metadatos
Mostrar el registro completo del ítemEditorial
Elsevier
Materia
Land-use changes Agricultural abandonment CN number Precipitation trends Runoff prediction Hydrological modeling
Fecha
2022-01-16Referencia bibliográfica
Teresa Palacios-Cabrera... [et al.]. Land-use changes and precipitation cycles to understand hydrodynamic responses in semiarid Mediterranean karstic watersheds, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 819, 2022, 153182, ISSN 0048-9697, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153182]
Patrocinador
Central University of Ecuador; European Commission 1924; Comunidad de Madrid 220-I; Catedra del Agua of the University of AlicanteResumen
Non-planned agricultural land abandonment is affecting natural hydrological processes. This is especially relevant in
vulnerable arid karstic watersheds, where water resources are scarce but vital for sustaining natural ecosystems and
human settlements.However, studies assessing the spatiotemporal evolution of the hydrological responses considering
land-use changes and precipitation cycles for long periods are rare in karstic environments. In this research, we selected
a representative karstic watershed in a Mediterranean semiarid domain, since in this belt, karst environments
are prone to land degradation processes due to human impacts. Geographic Information Systems-based tools and hydrological
modeling considering daily time steps were combined with temporal analysis of climate variables (wavelet
analysis) to demonstrate possible interactions and vulnerable responses. Observed daily flow data were used to calibrate/
validate these hydrological models by applying statistic indicators such as the NSE efficiency and a selfdeveloped
index (the ANSE index). This new index could enhance goodness-of-fit measurements obtained with traditional
statistics during the model optimization. We hypothesize that this is key to adding new inputs to this research
line. Our results revealed that: i) changes in the type of sclerophyllous vegetation (Quercus calliprinos, ilex, rotundifolia,
suber, etc.) from 81.5% during the initial stage (1990) to natural grasslands by 81.6% (2018); and, ii) decreases in agricultural
areas (crops) by approximately 60% and their transformation into coniferous forests, rock outcrops, sparsely
natural grasslands, etc. in the same period. Consequently, increases in the curve number (CN) rateswere identified as a
result of land abandonment. As a result, an increase in peak flow events jointlywith a relevant decrease of the average
flow rates (water scarcity) in the watershed was predicted by the HEC-HMS model and verified through the observed
data. This research provides useful information about the effects of anthropogenic changes in the hydrodynamic behaviour of karstic watersheds andwater resource impacts, especially key in water-scarce areas that depict important
hazards for the water supply of related populations and natural ecosystems.