Climate vs. Human impact: Quantitative and qualitative assessment of streamflow variation

This paper presents a novel framework comprising analytical, hydrological, and remote sensing techniques to separate the impacts of climate variation and regional human activities on streamflow changes in the Karkheh River basin (KRB) of western Iran. To investigate the type of streamflow changes, t...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kazemi, H., Hashemi, Hamideh, Maghsood, F.F., Hosseini, S.H., Sarukkalige, Ranjan, Jamali, S., Berndtsson, R.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2021
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85508
_version_ 1848764740375937024
author Kazemi, H.
Hashemi, Hamideh
Maghsood, F.F.
Hosseini, S.H.
Sarukkalige, Ranjan
Jamali, S.
Berndtsson, R.
author_facet Kazemi, H.
Hashemi, Hamideh
Maghsood, F.F.
Hosseini, S.H.
Sarukkalige, Ranjan
Jamali, S.
Berndtsson, R.
author_sort Kazemi, H.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper presents a novel framework comprising analytical, hydrological, and remote sensing techniques to separate the impacts of climate variation and regional human activities on streamflow changes in the Karkheh River basin (KRB) of western Iran. To investigate the type of streamflow changes, the recently developed DBEST algorithm was used to provide a better view of the underlying reasons. The Budyko method and the HBV model were used to investigate the decreasing streamflow, and DBEST detected a non-abrupt change in the streamflow trend, indicating the impacts of human activity in the region. Remote sensing analysis confirmed this finding by distinguishing land-use change in the region. The algorithm found an abrupt change in precipita-tion, reflecting the impacts of climate variation on streamflow. The final assessment showed that the observed streamflow reduction is associated with both climate variation and human influence. The combination of increased irrigated area (from 9 to 19% of the total basin area), reduction of forests (from 11 to 3%), and decreasing annual precipitation has substantially reduced the stream-flow rate in the basin. The developed framework can be implemented in other regions to thoroughly investigate human vs. climate impacts on the hydrological cycle, particularly where data availability is a challenge.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T11:24:09Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-85508
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T11:24:09Z
publishDate 2021
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-855082021-09-20T07:41:24Z Climate vs. Human impact: Quantitative and qualitative assessment of streamflow variation Kazemi, H. Hashemi, Hamideh Maghsood, F.F. Hosseini, S.H. Sarukkalige, Ranjan Jamali, S. Berndtsson, R. This paper presents a novel framework comprising analytical, hydrological, and remote sensing techniques to separate the impacts of climate variation and regional human activities on streamflow changes in the Karkheh River basin (KRB) of western Iran. To investigate the type of streamflow changes, the recently developed DBEST algorithm was used to provide a better view of the underlying reasons. The Budyko method and the HBV model were used to investigate the decreasing streamflow, and DBEST detected a non-abrupt change in the streamflow trend, indicating the impacts of human activity in the region. Remote sensing analysis confirmed this finding by distinguishing land-use change in the region. The algorithm found an abrupt change in precipita-tion, reflecting the impacts of climate variation on streamflow. The final assessment showed that the observed streamflow reduction is associated with both climate variation and human influence. The combination of increased irrigated area (from 9 to 19% of the total basin area), reduction of forests (from 11 to 3%), and decreasing annual precipitation has substantially reduced the stream-flow rate in the basin. The developed framework can be implemented in other regions to thoroughly investigate human vs. climate impacts on the hydrological cycle, particularly where data availability is a challenge. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85508 10.3390/w13172404 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ fulltext
spellingShingle Kazemi, H.
Hashemi, Hamideh
Maghsood, F.F.
Hosseini, S.H.
Sarukkalige, Ranjan
Jamali, S.
Berndtsson, R.
Climate vs. Human impact: Quantitative and qualitative assessment of streamflow variation
title Climate vs. Human impact: Quantitative and qualitative assessment of streamflow variation
title_full Climate vs. Human impact: Quantitative and qualitative assessment of streamflow variation
title_fullStr Climate vs. Human impact: Quantitative and qualitative assessment of streamflow variation
title_full_unstemmed Climate vs. Human impact: Quantitative and qualitative assessment of streamflow variation
title_short Climate vs. Human impact: Quantitative and qualitative assessment of streamflow variation
title_sort climate vs. human impact: quantitative and qualitative assessment of streamflow variation
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85508