Simulation of Mountainous Watershed Hydrological Process Responses on the Land Cover and Climate Changes Based on SWAT Model

The Tengtiao river basin (Southwestern China) is experiencing an intensification of agriculture and soil erosion. The SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model, a soil, water, sediment, and nutrient transformation and simulator for agricultural watershed, was applied to this catchment to study the potential impact of land management scenarios. The model was able to represent the hydrological cycle even though lacking of sufficient observed data such as rainfall and solar radiation data. It was predicted that converting all agricultural land which slope above 25 degree to forest introduced significant changes on the amount of river runoff. It was also predicted that drastic runoff changes under the global climate change.