Land use change impacts on floods at the catchment scale: Challenges and opportunities for future research

Water Resour Res. 2017 Jul;53(7):5209-5219. doi: 10.1002/2017WR020723. Epub 2017 Jul 2.

Abstract

Research gaps in understanding flood changes at the catchment scale caused by changes in forest management, agricultural practices, artificial drainage, and terracing are identified. Potential strategies in addressing these gaps are proposed, such as complex systems approaches to link processes across time scales, long-term experiments on physical-chemical-biological process interactions, and a focus on connectivity and patterns across spatial scales. It is suggested that these strategies will stimulate new research that coherently addresses the issues across hydrology, soil and agricultural sciences, forest engineering, forest ecology, and geomorphology.

Keywords: catchment scale; floods; land use change.