![Sample our Geography journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5937/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Geography.jpg"})
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to determine the hydrological impacts of land use/land cover (LULC) change in the Harts catchment from 1990 to 2010 using an integration of remote sensing, geographic information system and statistical methods. Hydrological data of rainfall and river discharge were statistically analysed to reveal the alterations and trends from 1990 to 2010. Changes in year-to-year relationships between precipitation and discharge suggested that discharge was relatively higher in the second half than in the first half of the study period. In fact, an overall weak correlation of 0.39 was found between precipitation and river discharge during the study period. The positive trend in discharge in the Harts River coincides with major changes in land cover over the study area. The LULC changes showed a decrease of vegetation cover from 758,345 ha in 1990 to 736,879.4 ha in 2008, while barren land increased from 226,670 ha in 1990 to 324,321.49 ha in 2008 (an increase of 97,651.49 ha). The modifications of natural vegetation cover have lead to modified runoff production and consequently to changing flow regimes in the Harts catchment. The coupling of surface observations, remote sensing and statistical analysis demonstrated the impacts of changes in LULC on peak river discharge, hence flooding behaviour on the Harts catchment.
Acknowledgements
A bursary from North West University/NRF research fund facilitated this research. Besides, the authors wish to express their gratitude to the anonymous reviewers, who helped to improve this paper through their thorough review.