Scholarly record

IMPACTS OF CHANGES IN FOREST COMPOSITION AND CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE RUNOFF PROCESSES IN THE VAH RIVER BASIN IN SLOVAKIA

Mgr. Peter Roncak, PhD., prof. Ing. Kamila Hlavcova, PhD., Ing. Jana Poorova

Abstract

The article deals with impacts of changes in forest composition and climate change on the runoff processes in the river basin in Slovakia. This work contains land use change scenarios of forest associations and also two scenarios of global climate change. Both of scenarios types of changes were prepared, and the runoff under the new conditions was simulated. Distributed rainfall-runoff models simulations are often used to evaluate the impact of such changes on the generation of runoff. These models have the advantage of reflecting the effects of land use in spatially distributed model parameters. In this paper, the GIS-based, spatially distributed WetSpa rainfall-runoff model was used to simulate mean daily discharges in the outlet of the basin as well as the individual components of the water balance. The WetSpa model estimated the forest changes impact on runoff regime in the selected river basin in Slovakia, with emphasis on parameterization of land cover properties in runoff simulations. The parameters of the model were estimated using climate data and three digital map layers: a land-use map, soil map and digital elevation model.. It can be expected change in long-term mean monthly flows in the future horizons. This change may be reflected differently, depending on the land use and climate scenarios. Of the considered scenario suggests, that the selected catchments may be potentially at greater risk of drought in summer. On the other hand, it is possible that the runoff will increase in the winter. The lack of water stored as snowpack in the winter could affect the availability of water for the rest of the year. The results could be used in integrated river basin management, especially in the organization of the river basin management process and assessments of the impacts of changes in the utilization of river basins on runoff and the extent of erosion-accumulation processes. The reliability of the results is related to the available input data and the conceptualization of the hydrological and erosion processes in the models as well as the parameterization of the environmental properties.

Publication Impact Profile

• Captures
• Mendeley - Readers: 10

PLUMX see details

DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017h/33/s12.025

Publication details

Back to publication list