Effect of Land Use–Land Cover Change on Runoff Characteristics in Mumbai City

Abstract

Change in Land use and Land cover (LU/LC) impacts the runoff attributes of a drainage basin to a huge degree, which thus, influences the surface and groundwater accessibility of the zone, and hence prompts furthermore change in LU/LC. Consequently, it becomes essential to survey the impact of variation in LU/LC on the runoff characteristics of an area. Such an examination can adequately be accomplished by utilizing watershed simulation models with coordinated GIS framework. In this study, the change in land use–land cover of Mumbai city is detected and analyzed. Hydrological modeling is performed by SWAT to simulate runoff from the basin. The results of SWAT modeling were calibrated and validated using SWAT-CUP by SUFI-2 method. It was observed that the exponential increase in urbanization resulted in an increase in simulated runoff in Mumbai for the past two decades (from 1995 to 2016).