Researchers’ Work from Southern Illinois University Focuses on Risk Management (Impact of Land Use and Land Cover Change on Hydrological Processes in Urban Watersheds: Analysis and Forecasting for Flood Risk Management): Risk Management

2024 MAR 13 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Researchers detail new data in risk management. According to news reporting from Carbondale, Illinois, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Land use and land cover (LULC) change is one of the primary contributors to hydrological change in urban watersheds and can potentially influence stream flow and flood volume. Understanding the impacts of LULC change on urban hydrological processes is critical to effective urban water management and minimizing flood risks.”

Our news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Southern Illinois University: “In this context, this study aims to determine the impacts of LULC change on hydrological response in a fast transitioning watershed for the predicted years of 2050 and 2080. This research employs the hybrid land use classification technique, Cellular Automata-Markov (CA-Markov) model to predict land use changes, utilizing land use data from 2001, 2013, and 2021. Additionally, it incorporates a calibrated, event-specific hydrologic model known as the Personal Computer Storm Water Management Model (PCSWMM) to assess alterations in hydrological responses for storm events of various magnitudes. The findings indicate a transition of the watershed into an urbanized landscape, replacing the previous dominance of agriculture and forested areas. The initial urban area, constituting 11.6% of the total area in 2021, expands to cover 34.1% and 44.2% of the total area by 2050 and 2080, respectively. Due to the LULC changes, there are increases in peak discharge of 5% and 6.8% and in runoff volume of 8% and 13.3% for the years 2050 and 2080 for a 100-year return period storm event. Yet, the extent of these changes intensifies notably during storm events with lower return periods.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “This heightened impact is directly attributed to the swift urbanization of the watershed. These results underscore the pressing necessity to regulate LULC change to preserve the hydrological equilibrium.”

For more information on this research see: Impact of Land Use and Land Cover Change on Hydrological Processes in Urban Watersheds: Analysis and Forecasting for Flood Risk Management. Geosciences, 2024,14(2):40. (Geosciences - http://www.mdpi.com/journal/geosciences). The publisher for Geosciences is MDPI AG.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences14020040.

Our news editors report that more information may be obtained by contacting Mandip Banjara, School of Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering, Southern Illinois University, 1230 Lincoln Drive, Carbondale, IL 62901-6603, United States. Additional authors for this research include Amrit Bhusal, Amrit Babu Ghimire, Ajay Kalra.

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