Improved Prediction of Stream Flow Based on Updating Land Cover Maps with Remotely Sensed Forest Change Detection

Abstract

Abstract:The water balance in a watershed can be disrupted by forest disturbances such as harvests and fires. Techniques to accurately and efficiently map forest cover changes due to disturbance are evolving quickly, and it is of interest to ask how useful maps of different types of disturbances over time can be in the prediction of water yield. We assessed the benefits of using land cover maps produced at annual vs. five-year intervals in the prediction of monthly streamflows across 10 watersheds contained entirely within the US National Forest System. We found that annually updating land cover maps with forest disturbance data significantly improved water yield predictions using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT; p < 0.01 improvement for both the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency measure and the ratio of the root mean square error to the standard deviation of the measured data). Improvement related to using annually updated land cover maps was directly related to the amount of disturbance observed in a watershed. Our results lay a foundation to apply new high-resolution disturbance datasets in the field of hydrologic modeling to monitor ungauged watersheds and to explore potential water yield changes in watersheds if climate conditions or management practices were to change forest disturbance processes.

Improved Estimations of Nitrate and Sediment Concentrations Based on SWAT Simulations and Annual Updated Land Cover Products from a Deep Learning Classification Algorithm

“…In light of the above, the results showed a 0.87 and 0.01 higher performance for NSE and RSR, respectively. Our results are in agreement with those obtained in a previous study, where improved predictions in a stream flow were observed due to the utilization of updating land cover maps with EO -based forest change detection products [32].…”

“…According to Hernandez et al [32], to better understand any improvements due to temporally precise disturbance data, we explored the relationship between the number of HRUs and the total number of them:…”

A Method of Watershed Delineation for Flat Terrain Using Sentinel-2A Imagery and DEM: A Case Study of the Taihu Basin

“…From the perspective of hydrological simulation, a simple dendritic structure is usually needed. In fact, the rivers could simply be changed to a dendritic structure by interruption and used for the hydrological slope and sub-basin processes in the SWAT model for a smaller area [47][48][49]. Simultaneously, the detailed extracted catchments that corresponded to these rivers could be merged and used in the hydrological runoff simulation.…”

SWAT‐LUT: A Desktop Graphical User Interface for Updating Land Use in SWAT

“…This map allows the model to simulate and integrate responses of various LULC types, and enables modelers to study LULC change impacts by varying its spatial and temporal distribution. In fact, the impacts of land use changes (LUCs) on hydrologic and sediment and chemical transport process have been widely studied (e.g., Fohrer et al ; Pai and Saraswat ; Guse et al ; Hernandez et al ). In a recent study, Arnold et al () discussed the importance of accurate representation of major processes and the associated model inputs within a watershed and its impact on calibration, validation, and scenario analysis.…”

“…To assist in creating input files needed to activate the LUC module in the SWAT model, Pai and Saraswat () developed a complementary computer‐based application (SWAT2009_LUC). Since the roll out of this application, it has been used for a variety of applications (Pai and Saraswat ; Shimizu et al ; Guse et al ; Yasarer et al ; Salmorala et al ; Hernandez et al ).…”