STUDY ON LAND USE MECHANISM AND DYNAMIC MODEL OF NORTHERN QINLING MOUNTAINS

Land use and hydrology are interdependent, so that land use modeling could benefit from hydrologic modeling. This study aims to integrate spatial predictions of hydrologic variables as provided by a hydrologic model into a land use model for Northern Qinling Mountains in China. The benefits of this integration are quantified by comparing predictions of a land use model that uses a basic set of explanatory variables to a land use model that additionally uses the modeled hydrologic variables. Our results indicate that the land use model that was enhanced with hydrologic explanatory variables outperformed the basic land use model.