LUCC Impact on Sediment Loads in Subtropical Rainy Areas
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CARRS-8 03/02/2006 5:51 PM Page 319 LUCC Impact on Sediment Loads in Subtropical Rainy Areas Xiaoling Chen, Shuming Bao, Hui Li, Xiaobin Cai, Peng Guo, Zhongyi Wu, Weijuan Fu, and Hongmei Zhao Abstract the world also obviously showed that the erosion rates were In this paper, we evaluate the impacts of land-use/cover sensitive to land-use and related human activities (Walling, changes (LUCC) on sediment loads at the outlets of five sub- 1999). Land-use/cover change (LUCC) can alter the velocity of watersheds of the Poyang Lake watershed by integrating water, whether in the form of streams or overland flow, by remote sensing and GIS with statistical analysis. The inten- changing slope or gradient and the roughness encountered sively farmed watershed is characterized by a mountainous by the flow (Wardrop and Brooks, 1998), which affect and hilly topography and a rainy climate. The primary goal sediment loads, and consequently impact the downstream of this paper is to help a better understanding of land- ecosystem. However, there is limited information available use/cover change and its driving forces. We discuss spatio- regarding the effect of land-use/cover change on the sedi- temporal variations in rainfall and sediment loads and ment loads. identify factors contributing to those variations, analyze the State-of-the-art methodologies have recently been devel- comprehensive impacts of land-use/cover change on chang- oped to enhance land-use/cover change detection, including ing climate and human activities, and conclude that the remote sensing and GIS techniques. Currently, satellite changing rates of forest cover and climate regimes are imagery possesses the capacity to detect land-use/cover primary factors for sediment discharges in the Poyang Lake change on various scales and can also derive many biophysi- watershed. Our results suggest that the eco-system still have cal parameters, allowing for spatial and temporal compar- large capacities to support human activities in the area. isons (Carlson and Arthur, 2000). Computer simulation models are becoming increasingly popular in predicting soil loss for various land-use and management practices (Bhuyan Introduction et al., 2002). This study is aimed at presenting a change It is well known that there is a complex interaction among detection result of land-use/cover change in the sub-tropical climate, land-use, vegetation cover density, erosion rates, and rainy area, taking the Poyang Lake watershed occurring sediment loads in the watershed. As an important factor for around 10-year interval in the 1990s as a case. The driving water quality, sediment not only affects the optical property of forces for those changes were then identified. The relation- water but acts as a carrier of pollutants. The previous studies ship between rainfall and sediment discharges showed the suggested that land-use can affect the soil erodibility and impact of land-use/cover change on sediments in the water- sediment source (Woodward and Foster, 1997) as well as the shed. The analysis of land-use/cover change and sediment amount of sediments generated by soil erosion (Yang, 2004). discharges in the Poyang Lake watershed would be helpful Human activities were proven to make its land-use/cover to reveal the trend of land-use/cover change, and then to patterns change more rapidly, and thus brought different provide reference background information for remote sensing impacts on bio-physical processes (Chakrapani, 2005; Chen in the cloudy and rainy areas. et al., 2005; Restrepo and Syvitski, 2006). Rapid land-use/cover changes may affect both water and sediment discharges. The effect of land-use and development is vital in understanding Study Area Description the global sediment flux, and the regional variations (Syvitski, The study area, the Poyang Lake watershed, is located to the 2003). After human settlement effects, climate shifts are often south of middle reach of the Yangtze River in the monsoon the major driving factor on sediment discharges. The previous zone of East Asia. The area of the watershed is 162.2 ϫ 103 study showed that the land-use was probably the dominant km2, taking up 97 percent of Jiangxi provincial territory, control on particulate fluxes in areas of low relief and large- which lies at 113°25ЈE to 118°29ЈE, and 24°29ЈN to 30°05ЈN. scale urbanization, while the mountainous regions were likely The nearly identical boundaries of natural watershed and to be dominated by natural processes (Wasson, 1996). the provincial administrative units bring a greatly advantage The results obtained from erosion plot experiments and for integrating data analysis related to biophysical factors and experimental watershed studies in many different areas of anthropogenic driving forces collecting from both natural and administrative units. The topography in the Poyang Lake watershed mainly consists of mountainous and hilly red soil areas. The Xiaoling Chen and Shuming Bao are with the Key Lab of elevation ranges from less than 10 m to around 2,000 m Poyang Lake Ecological Environment and Resource Develop- ment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China, 330022 ([email protected]). Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing Vol. 73, No. 3, March 2007, pp. 319–327. Hui Li, Xiaobin Cai, Peng Guo, Zhongyi Wu, Weijuan Fu, and Hongmei Zhao are with the State Key Laboratory of 0099-1112/07/7303–0319/$3.00/0 Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote © 2007 American Society for Photogrammetry Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, 430079. and Remote Sensing PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING March 2007 319 CARRS-8 03/02/2006 5:51 PM Page 320 above sea level, and the watershed consists of 36 percent TABLE 1. SUBCATCHMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF POYANG LAKE WATERSHED mountainous area, 42 percent hilly area, 14.7 percent flat Sub- Gauge Area Average and upland area, and 7.3 percent water. The mountainous 2 3 area is mostly covered by forest, brush and grass, and the catchment River Station (km ) SSC (kg/m ) hilly area consists of natural vegetation, barren land, and Gan Gan River WaiZhou 80948 0.0978 cropland, respectively. The mountainous and hilly areas Xin Xin River MeiGang 15535 0.0693 contribute most sediment loads due to the soil erosion in Xiu Liao River WanJiaBu 3548 0.0693 the watershed. The flat and upland area is mostly used as Rao Chang River DuFengKeng 5013 0.0372 cropland and built-up area where much more human AnLe River HuShan 6374 0.0389 activities have been concentrated. The water mainly consists Fu FuRiver LiJiaDu 15811 0.0673 of the Poyang Lake and its five rivers, and Poyang Lake is the largest fresh water lake in China with an important impact on Jiangxi Province and the lower Yangtze River sub-watershed is the largest, and its area is almost as twofold regions, and has been designated by WWF as one of the as the sum of other four sub-watersheds (Table 1). The globally important ecological areas. Poyang Lake is charac- Gan River has the greatest amount of suspended sediment terized by its dramatic seasonal fluctuation of water level, concentration (SSC) and contributed the most water dis- which creates a vast area of wetland surrounding this big charges and sediment loads in the Poyang Lake watershed. lake (Figure 1). The area of the lake greatly varies with the The flooding period for the rivers in the Poyang Lake fluctuation of its water level. The water level rises during watershed mainly lasts from April to July, and the highest the flood period and then the water surface suddenly 2 water discharge and water level typically appear in May or expands, with a water surface area of around 3,210 km . June (Zhang et al., 2004). And, it drops at low water with its bottomland becoming The Poyang lake watershed belongs to a warm, humid exposed out; only several wandering watercourses remain subtropical climate which extends along the south to north during the dry period with a water surface area of about 2 direction, with 500 km for its widest west to east direction 146 km . and 620 km for its longest north to south direction. The In this watershed, the annual mean runoff of the 3 annual rainfall ranges from 1,341 mm to 1,940 mm, with 50 watershed is 152.5 billion m , accounting for 16.3 percent percent of it concentrated from April to June, and May and of the Yangtze River watershed. Surface runoff mainly runs June usually contributing the most monthly precipitation in a to the Poyang Lake, and the Poyang Lake holds water from year, ranging from 200 mm to 350 mm per month; even more five rivers: Gan River, Fu River, Xin River, Rao River, and than 700 mm in some extreme months. The spatial distribu- Xiu River which empty into the Yangtze River. Five sub- tion of rainfall often varies, and more precipitation usually watersheds consisting of the above five rivers constitute falls in the south, east, and mountainous area in the water- the Poyang Lake watershed. Among them, the Gan River shed. The mild climate, abundant rainfall and almost synchronism of water and heat are suitable to vegetation growth, which encourages agricultural productivity and other related human activities. Data and Methods Data and Analysis The study was carried out with data from 21 years of daily rainfall at 22 meteorological stations, water discharge, and sediment loads at five gauge stations in the Poyang Lake watershed. Water flow in the river is a major factor influenc- ing sediment loads in the river, which had a significant correlation with rainfall. The monsoon season, which accounts for 85 percent to 95 percent of total annual rainfall in the watershed, is the main source of water flow in the river.