The effect of land use changes on runoff generation in the High Tatras region

Kamila HLAVČOVÁ; O. HORVÁT; Ján SZOLGAY; M. DANKO; Silvia KOHNOVÁ

Kamila HLAVČOVÁ Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
O. HORVÁT Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Ján SZOLGAY Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
M. DANKO Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Silvia KOHNOVÁ Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Keywords: Scenarios of land use changes, High Tatras region, hydrological rainfall-runoff model with distributed parameters, total runoff and its components

Abstract

The impact of land-use changes on the runoff regime in the High Tatras region was estimated with an emphasis on the parameterization of the land cover properties in a runoff simulation. A spatially distributed physically-based hydrological model FRIER was applied to simulate runoff generation under unchanged and changed land use conditions. The Poprad river basin was divided into a number of grid cells for which the water and energy balance were maintained and hydrological processes were simulated continuously both in time and space. Parameters of the hydrological model were calibrated on data from the period of 1981-2000. The land use changes connected to agricultural and forest management were expressed by several scenarios. The effect of the changes in surface runoff, interflow, base flow, and total runoff in the basin's outlets and changes in runoff distribution on the basin after the wind calamity in 2004 were compared and discussed.