Detecting land use and climate impacts on water yield ecosystem service in arid and semi-arid areas: A study in Sirvan River Basin-Iran

This study investigates how land use and climate changes affect water yield ecosystem service (ES) in the Sirvan River basin, located in Iran’s Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces. By detecting land-use and climatic parameter changes in the past, their future evolution were modeled by scenario making. For this purpose, we developed two land-use scenarios (low and high urbanization) and two climatic scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathway 2.6 and RCP 8.5). The implemented scenarios showed how the amount of water yield in the basin and sub-basins changes in the future based on climate and land-use changes. The results showed that, concerning land use, the forest has decreased from 2013 to 2019, and built-up areas have increased. Also, the results showed that precipitation has been declining in the long term, and the temperature has been rising. Finally, the Water yield in 2019 was higher than in 2013 and lower in the future based on forecast scenarios. This trend will continue until 2040. In addition, it was found that the t effects of these factors on water yield ES are a complex process, and based on the results, the impact of climatic factors is more significant than the one of land-use change. We could conclude that this region will face more environmental problems in the future.