Hamidreza Keshtkar
57132799100
Publications - 1
Incorporating climate and land use projections with spatial optimization of best management practices for soil erosion and sediment control in a semi-arid mountainous watershed
Publication Name: Science of the Total Environment
Publication Date: 2025-12-15
Volume: 1008
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
Effective watershed management requires anticipating environmental changes and implementing strategies to reduce soil erosion and sediment yield. However, the effectiveness of structural and biological best management practices (BMPs) under combined climate and land use/land cover (LULC) changes remains poorly understood in semi-arid mountainous regions, where implementation is limited by site-specific factors such as soil depth, slope, rainfall, and LULC. This study quantified hydrological and sediment dynamics in the Taleghan Watershed, Iran (823 km2), dominated by rangeland, for baseline (1990–2010) and future (2020–2040) periods. Future climate scenarios were derived from downscaled CanESM5 projections (SSP2-4.5), and 2038 LULC was simulated using a Cellular Automata Markov model. SWAT was coupled with the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA II) to optimize the selection and spatial allocation of BMPs including seeding, pile seeding, contour farming and check dams within critical source areas (CSAs) to reduce sediment yield and implementation costs under feasibility constraints. Results showed a rise in maximum (21.5 °C to 22.2 °C) and minimum (7.2 °C to 7.3 °C) temperatures, a 4–11 % increase in mean annual precipitation, and rangeland improvement, with moderate rangeland increasing from 31 % to 42 %. Soil erosion increased by 32 % under climate scenarios but decreased by 7.5 % under land use change, whereas their combined effects led to 23.8 % higher erosion and 6.5 % greater sediment yield. Among biological measures, pile seeding was most widely applicable, though feasibility constraints limited sediment control with reductions of 3.8 to 4.8 % along the Pareto front. Integrating feasibility constraints with climate and land use projections provides conservative yet practical insights for sustainable watershed management in semi-arid mountainous regions.
Open Access: Yes