Assessment of land use change impacts on hydrological parameters in Porsuk River basin-Turkey

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) change is considered to play an essential role in river basin hydrology. Climate change, and increase in urbanization have disrupted the hydrological parameters pattern in Porsuk River Basin (PRB). The current study is aimed to investigate the LULC change impacts on surface runoff, groundwater, evapotranspiration, and lateral flow parameters in the five sub-basins of the PRB under different LULC development scenarios (1990 & 2006) and one climate period (1989- 2010) through hydrological modeling. In this study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was utilized to analyze the hydrology of the river basin at watershed scale. The hydrological pattern characterization is based on five discharge gauges monitored by State Hydraulic Works (DSI) in the basin. The Kiranharmani, Parsibey, and Porsuk Ciftligi subbasins, the yearly increase in surface runoff reached 25%, 18%, and 12.91%, respectively, are more affected by landuse changes. The Scenario 2, contrary to Scenario 1, showed a noticeable reduction of groundwater infiltration in all subbasins with exception of Parsibey, due to rapid increased area of residential regions. In comparison to the 1990 LULC, changes in the 2006 LULC have a greater overall impact on hydrological processes in all sub-basins of the PRB. Therefore, it is believed that changes in specific LULC classifications can be linked to the reaction to changes in hydrological processes in a subbasin. Overall, this research is believed to be among the first to be done in the PRB, and the findings are thought to be helpful for water management.