Application of SWAT model to assess land use change and climate variability impacts on hydrology of Nam Rom Catchment in Northwestern Vietnam

• Published in: Environment, development and sustainability Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 3091 - 3109
• Main Authors: Son, Ngo Thanh, Le Huong, Hoang, Loc, Nguyen Duc, Phuong, Tran Trong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-03-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Catchments; Climate change; Climate variability; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Economic Geology; Economic Growth; Environment; Environmental Economics; Environmental Management; Evapotranspiration; Flow simulation; Groundwater; Groundwater flow; Groundwater runoff; Hydrology; Land cover; Land use; Percolation; Remote sensing; Simulation; Surface flow; Surface runoff; Sustainable Development; Variability; Water; Water yield; Vietnam; Nam Rom Catchment; SWAT model; Hydrology; Climate Variability; Land Use and Land Cover Changes
• ISSN: 1387-585X; 1573-2975
• DOI: 10.1007/s10668-021-01295-2

Land use and land cover (LULC) changes, climate variability and climate change (CC) contribute hydrological response in tropical catchments, but their individual and combined effects are not yet well known. To understand watershed hydrology, remote sensing was used for quantifying the change in land use for the years 1992 and 2015. Subsequently, the spatial distributed SWAT model was implemented to simulate the hydrological responses for the Nam Rom Catchment of Vietnam. It was found that the SWAT model could be well simulated flow in the catchment by the value of Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NES), coefficient of determination (
R
2
), and percent bias (PBIAS) values 0.76, 0.76, and 6.76 for the calibration and 0.64, 0.65, and 8.37, for the validation, respectively. In addition, a strong correlation between land use changes (1992 and 2015) and increasing evapotranspiration, percolation, groundwater, and water yield was found. On the other hand, change in climate results in decrease in all hydrological components (ET (2.3%), percolation (9.8%), surface runoff (11.5%), groundwater flow (10.5%), and water yield (10.8%). The correlative distributions of combined LULC and CC led to decrease in significantly in groundwater (−5.7%), surface flow (−16.9%), and water yield (−9.2%). In short, CC had a more significant effect on hydrological responses than LULC in the Nam Rom Catchment in the period of 1992–2015. A simulation was also done to evaluate the projected LULC and CC on catchment hydrology in 2030. The simulation results showed that evapotranspiration and surface flow are the most sensitive hydrological responses in the future. These findings could be used in developing long-term LULC planning programs and CC adaptation as well in the Nam Rom catchment and other regions of Vietnam.
Graphical abstract