Climate change impacts on streamflow and sediment yield in the North of Iran

Climate change will accelerate the hydrological cycle, altering rainfall, and the magnitude and timing of runoff. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impacts of climate change on streamflow and sediment yield from the Gorganroud river basin in the North of Iran. To study the effects of climat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrological sciences journal 2016-01, Vol.61 (1), p.123-133
Main Authors: Azari, Mahmood, Moradi, Hamid Reza, Saghafian, Bahram, Faramarzi, Monireh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Climate change
Freshwater
hydrological impacts assessment
Hydrology
iran
sediment yield
Sediments
Soil erosion
Stream flow
streamflow
SWAT
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Summary:Climate change will accelerate the hydrological cycle, altering rainfall, and the magnitude and timing of runoff. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impacts of climate change on streamflow and sediment yield from the Gorganroud river basin in the North of Iran. To study the effects of climatic variations, the SWAT model was implemented to simulate the hydrological regime and the SUFI-2 algorithm was used for parameter optimization. The climate change scenarios were constructed using the outcomes of three general circulation models for three emission scenarios. The study results for 2040-2069 showed an increase in annual streamflow of 5.8%, 2.8% and 9.5% and an increase in sediment yield of 47.7%, 44.5% and 35.9% for the A1F1, A2 and B1 emission scenarios, respectively. This implies that the impact of climate change on sediment yield is greater than on streamflow. Monthly variations show that the increase in discharge and sediment yield is more pronounced in wet seasons and the decrease is more pronounced in summer (July-September). The results highlighted the strong impact of climate change and reflected the importance of incorporating such analysis into adaptive management. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz Associate editor Not assigned
ISSN:0262-6667
2150-3435
DOI:10.1080/02626667.2014.967695