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Profile photo of Hossein Hashemi

Hossein Hashemi

Researcher

Profile photo of Hossein Hashemi

Climate vs. Human Impact : Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Streamflow Variation

Author

  • Hamideh Kazemi
  • Hossein Hashemi
  • Fatemeh Fadia Maghsood
  • Hasan Hosseini
  • Ranjan Sarukkalige
  • Sadegh Jamali
  • Ronny Berndtsson

Summary, in English

This paper presents a novel framework comprising analytical, hydrological, and remote sensing techniques to separate the impacts of climate variation and regional human activities on streamflow changes in the Karkheh River basin (KRB) of western Iran. To investigate the type of streamflow changes, the recently developed DBEST algorithm was used to provide a better view of the underlying reasons. The Budyko method and the HBV model were used to investigate the decreasing streamflow, and DBEST detected a non-abrupt change in the streamflow trend, indicating the impacts of human activity in the region. Remote sensing analysis confirmed this finding by distinguishing land-use change in the region. The algorithm found an abrupt change in precipitation, reflecting the impacts of climate variation on streamflow. The final assessment showed that the observed streamflow reduction is associated with both climate variation and human influence. The combination of increased irrigated area (from 9 to 19% of the total basin area), reduction of forests (from 11 to 3%), and decreasing annual precipitation has substantially reduced the streamflow rate in the basin. The developed framework can be implemented in other regions to thoroughly investigate human vs. climate impacts on the hydrological cycle, particularly where data availability is a challenge.

Department/s

  • MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World
  • Division of Water Resources Engineering
  • LTH Profile Area: Water
  • Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES)
  • Transport and Roads

Publishing year

2021-08-31

Language

English

Publication/Series

Water

Volume

13

Issue

17

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

MDPI AG

Topic

  • Water Engineering

Keywords

  • Budyko; Karkheh River basin; HBV; remote sensing; land use change; climate variation

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2073-4441