Abstract
This study investigated the impact of land use change on mean annual discharge in an experimental sub-basin in the metropolitan area of Athens, Greece, using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The study site, the NW sub-basin of the Kifisos river basin, experienced an increase in artificial surfaces from 42.1 km2 in 1990 to 71.6 km2 in 2018. Therefore, the selected study site is an excellent case study to quantify the impact of urbanization on water balance components. The simulated discharge was compared to four land use scenarios (i.e. land use maps: 1990, 2000, 2006, and 2012) under the same climate conditions. Results showed that from 1990 to 2018: (i) the expansion of urban areas led to an increase of discharge by 8.7%, as water yield increased and evapotranspiration decreased, (ii) under the same climate conditions, runoff changes were observed during the late dry season, and (iii) the impact of land use change was more noticeable in the suburban sub-basins with significant urbanization. Overall, the outcomes of this study provide essential knowledge of the hydrological processes of an urban/peri-urban system which will be useful for planning future development strategies in the region.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abbaspour, K. C., Yang, J., Maximov, I., Siber, R., Bogner, K., Mieleitner, J., Zobrist, J., & Srinivasan, R. (2007). Modelling hydrology and water quality in the pre-alpine/alpine Thur watershed using SWAT. Journal of Hydrology, 333, 413–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2006.09.014
Arnold, J. G., Moriasi, D. N., Gassman, P. W., Abbaspour, K. C., White, M. J., Srinivasan, R., Santhi, C., Harmel, R. D., Van Griensven, A., Van Liew, M. W., et al. (2012). SWAT: model use, calibration, and validation. Transactions of the ASABE, 55, 1491–1508. https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.42256
Corine Land Cover (CLC). (2020). Land use data. https://land.copernicus.eu/. Accessed on 15 Dec 2020.
Lagouvardos, K., Kotroni, V., Bezes, A., Koletsis, I., Kopania, T., Lykoudis, S., Mazarakis, N., Papagiannaki, K., & Vougioukas, S. (2017). The automatic weather stations NOANN network of the National Observatory of Athens: Operation and database. Geoscience Data Journal, 4, 4–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/gdj3.44
Lin, B., Chen, X., Yao, H., Chen, Y., Liu, M., Gao, L., & James, A. (2015). Analyses of landuse change impacts on catchment runoff using different time indicators based on SWAT model. Ecological Indicators, 58, 55–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.05.031
Mamassis, N., Mazi, K., Dimitriou, E., Kalogeras, D., Malamos, N., Lykoudis, S., Koukouvinos, A., Tsirogiannis, I., Papageorgaki, I., Papadopoulos, A., et al. (2021). OpenHinet: a synergistically built, national-scale infrastructure for monitoring the surface waters of Greece. Water, 13, 2779. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13192779
Mendonça dos Santos, F., Proença de Oliveira, R., & Augusto Di Lollo, J. (2020). Effects of land use changes on streamflow and sediment yield in Atibaia River Basin—SP, Brazil. Water, 12, 1711. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12061711
Zhou, F., Xu, Y., Chen, Y., Xu, C.-Y., Gao, Y., & Du, J. (2013). Hydrological response to urbanization at different spatio-temporal scales simulated by coupling of CLUE-S and the SWAT model in the Yangtze River Delta region. Journal of Hydrology, 485, 113–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.12.040
Acknowledgements
The research work was supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) under the HFRI PhD Fellowship grant (Fellowship Number: 1586).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Koltsida, E., Mamassis, N., Kallioras, A. (2024). Hydrologic Response to Land Use Change in the Kifisos Experimental Sub-Basin, Athens, Greece. In: Chenchouni, H., et al. Recent Advancements from Aquifers to Skies in Hydrogeology, Geoecology, and Atmospheric Sciences. MedGU 2022. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47079-0_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47079-0_22
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-47078-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-47079-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)