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Land Use and Climate Change Impacts on Streamflow Using SWAT Model, Middle Awash Sub Basin, Ethiopia

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Abstract

Assessing the impact of land use and climate change on streamflow is important for watershed management. This study aims to examine the possible impacts of land use and climate change on the streamflow of the Jewaha catchment. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model is used to simulate streamflow by integrating complex interactions between climate and land use/cover. The past land-use changes were determined by classifying the Landsat images from 1990, 2000, and 2018 with Earth Resource Development System (ERDAS) Imagine 2015. The potential of climate change impact was examined under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6 and RCP 8.5 emission scenarios for 2041–2070 time horizon with the baseline 1971–2000. Climate change scenarios over the catchment indicated an increasing trend in temperature, in both RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5, and variability in rainfall patterns in the catchment. The average annual temperature will increase by 0.1 °C and 0.15 °C for the RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 scenarios, respectively. Generally, the result indicated that in the future summer streamflow highly increases due to climate and land-use change and a decrease in the dry season because of the changes in the climate variables.

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Availability of Data and Material

Meteorological data (rainfall, temperature data), hydrological (streamflow data), downscaled climate data, land use and soil data, the response from the questioners, and interview data.

Model output: XLSTAT software was used to analyze the data.

: SWAT model was used for streamflow forecasting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hydraulic and Water Resource Engineering, Debre Tabor University, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia

    Diress Yigezu Tenagashaw & Yitbarek Andualem Mekonnen

  2. Department of Hydraulic and Water Resource Engineering, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia

    Mekuanent Muluneh

  3. Department of Hydraulic and Water Resource Engineering, Wollo University, Kombolcha Institute of Technology, Kombolcha, Ethiopia

    Girum Metaferia

Authors
  1. Diress Yigezu Tenagashaw
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  2. Mekuanent Muluneh
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  3. Girum Metaferia
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  4. Yitbarek Andualem Mekonnen
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Contributions

All authors contributed to this study. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Mekuanent Muluneh; the data analysis was performed by Girum Metaferia; SWAT model run and result discussion were done by DiresYigezu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yitbark Andualem. All authors are commented on in the manuscript of previous versions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Diress Yigezu Tenagashaw.

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We here submitted the manuscript entitled “The impacts climate and land-use changes on streamflow case study on Jewaha catchment northeastern, Ethiopia” to be considered for publication. We declare that this is our original research work.

There is no conflict of interest between the authors.

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Tenagashaw, D.Y., Muluneh, M., Metaferia, G. et al. Land Use and Climate Change Impacts on Streamflow Using SWAT Model, Middle Awash Sub Basin, Ethiopia. Water Conserv Sci Eng 7, 183–196 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41101-022-00135-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41101-022-00135-2

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