Hydrological impacts of land use/land cover change in a large river basin in central–northern Thailand

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the hydrological impacts of land use/land cover (LULC) change in the Yom watershed in central–northern Thailand over a 15‐year period using an integration of remote sensing, Geographic Information System, statistical methods, and hydrological modelling. The LULC changes showed an expansion of urban areas by 132% (from 210 km 2 in 1990 to 488 km 2 in 2006). The Yom River's daily discharge long‐term trend significantly increased at most of the measurement stations ( p value 3 s −1 day −1 over a 15‐year period, with the increase in urbanised area spanning a range from 81 to 149% in two flood‐prone provinces. A rainfall‐runoff model simulated a small increase (∼10%) in peak flows. The coupling of surface observations, remote sensing, and rainfall‐runoff modeling demonstrated the impacts of changes in LULC on peak river discharge, hence flooding behaviour, of a major river in central–northern Thailand. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society

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