Hussen Ali*, Abdu Mohammed, Yonatan Tibebu and Abdela YImer
Land use and land cover change is one factor which has impact on watershed hydrology by changing the magnitude and pattern of stream flow. The main objective of this study is to assess the impact of land use and land cover change on stream flow in mille watershed of a wash basin. In this study, the stream flow in the mille watershed was simulated using the semi-distributed hydrologic model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The sensitive parameters analysis, SWAT output calibration, and validation for stream flow in the watershed were done using SWAT-CUP (SUFI-2-algorithm). The stream flow was calibrated for 1994, 2004 and 2014 land use land cover data, and results from calibration for three different periods land use show acceptable range (0.79, 0.82 and 0.85 for R2 and 0.75, 0.78 and 0.81 for NSE) between observed and simulated stream flow respectively. The results of validation were also acceptable range (0.83, 0.84 and 0.86 for R2 and 0.78, 0.84 and 0.86 for NSE) for three land uses/cover scenario. Land use and land cover changes; climatic characteristics and slope variation of the topography were having an impact on the stream flow of the mille watershed. However, agricultural land, urban, dispersed shrub, and rocky bare land increased by 3.98%, 0.85%, 21.2%, and 41.76% respectively. The amount of forest, shrub lands, acacia, and grassland in the watershed decrease by 44.7%, 2.56%, 23.25%, and 0.92% respectively.
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