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Assessing Impacts of Climate Variability and Reforestation Activities on Water Resources in the Headwaters of the Segura River Basin (SE Spain)

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  • Javier Senent-Aparicio

    (Department of Civil Engineering, Catholic University of San Antonio, Campus de los Jerónimos s/n, 30107 Guadalupe, Murcia, Spain)

  • Sitian Liu

    (Department of Civil Engineering, Catholic University of San Antonio, Campus de los Jerónimos s/n, 30107 Guadalupe, Murcia, Spain)

  • Julio Pérez-Sánchez

    (Department of Civil Engineering, Catholic University of San Antonio, Campus de los Jerónimos s/n, 30107 Guadalupe, Murcia, Spain)

  • Adrián López-Ballesteros

    (Department of Civil Engineering, Catholic University of San Antonio, Campus de los Jerónimos s/n, 30107 Guadalupe, Murcia, Spain)

  • Patricia Jimeno-Sáez

    (Department of Civil Engineering, Catholic University of San Antonio, Campus de los Jerónimos s/n, 30107 Guadalupe, Murcia, Spain)

Abstract

Climate change and the land-use and land-cover changes (LULC) resulting from anthropic activity are important factors in the degradation of an ecosystem and in the availability of a basin’s water resources. To know how these activities affect the quantity of the water resources of basins, such as the Segura River Basin, is of vital importance. In this work, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used for the study of the abovementioned impacts. The model was validated by obtaining a Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) of 0.88 and a percent bias (PBIAS) of 17.23%, indicating that SWAT accurately replicated monthly streamflow. Next, land-use maps for the years of 1956 and 2007 were used to establish a series of scenarios that allowed us to evaluate the effects of these activities on both joint and individual water resources. A reforestation plan applied in the basin during the 1970s caused that the forest area had almost doubled, whereas the agricultural areas and shrubland had been reduced by one-third. These modifications, together with the effect of climate change, have led to a decrease of 26.3% in the quantity of generated water resources, not only due to climate change but also due to the increase in forest area.

Suggested Citation

  • Javier Senent-Aparicio & Sitian Liu & Julio Pérez-Sánchez & Adrián López-Ballesteros & Patricia Jimeno-Sáez, 2018. "Assessing Impacts of Climate Variability and Reforestation Activities on Water Resources in the Headwaters of the Segura River Basin (SE Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-13, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:9:p:3277-:d:169771
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Zhihui Li & Xiangzheng Deng & Feng Wu & Shaikh Shamim Hasan, 2015. "Scenario Analysis for Water Resources in Response to Land Use Change in the Middle and Upper Reaches of the Heihe River Basin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-23, March.
    2. Boini Narsimlu & Ashvin Gosain & Baghu Chahar, 2013. "Assessment of Future Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources of Upper Sind River Basin, India Using SWAT Model," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(10), pages 3647-3662, August.
    3. Zhenliang Yin & Qi Feng & Linshan Yang & Xiaohu Wen & Jianhua Si & Songbing Zou, 2017. "Long Term Quantification of Climate and Land Cover Change Impacts on Streamflow in an Alpine River Catchment, Northwestern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-17, July.
    4. Gassman, Philip W. & Reyes, Manuel R. & Green, Colleen H. & Arnold, Jeffrey G., 2007. "The Soil and Water Assessment Tool: Historical Development, Applications, and Future Research Directions," ISU General Staff Papers 200701010800001027, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hongfei Zhao & Hongming He & Jingjing Wang & Chunyu Bai & Chuangjuan Zhang, 2018. "Vegetation Restoration and Its Environmental Effects on the Loess Plateau," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Leting Lyu & Xiaorui Wang & Caizhi Sun & Tiantian Ren & Defeng Zheng, 2019. "Quantifying the Effect of Land Use Change and Climate Variability on Green Water Resources in the Xihe River Basin, Northeast China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Tian Peng & Chu Zhang & Jianzhong Zhou, 2019. "Intra- and Inter-Annual Variability of Hydrometeorological Variables in the Jinsha River Basin, Southwest China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, September.
    4. Julio Pérez-Sánchez & Javier Senent-Aparicio & Francisco Segura-Méndez & David Pulido-Velazquez & Raghavan Srinivasan, 2019. "Evaluating Hydrological Models for Deriving Water Resources in Peninsular Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-36, May.

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