Impact of landuse/land cover change on run-off in a catchment of Narmada river in India

The landuse/land cover change has a significant influence on the hydrological response of a river basin. The run-off characteristics are naturally changing due to reduction of initial abstraction that increases run-off volume. Thus, it is necessary to quantify the changes in the run-off characteristics of a catchment that occur due to changes in landuse/land cover. These changes can be sudden or continuous. Physically based conceptual models have developed to find out surface run-off, and one of the models used in the present study is the Soil Conservation Service curve number (SCS-CN) model which has a broad range of applications. The present study is on the application of the SCS-CN model to analyse the impact of various landuse/land cover change in  the run-off characteristics of a catchment of Narmada basin in Madhya Pradesh, India. The study includes the preparation of a landuse/land cover map of different years from the satellite imageries, drainage network, and development of a database by using a geographic information system (GIS) and a run-off generation with the model to estimate the impact of landuse change on run-off. © 2014, Società Italiana di Fotogrammetria e Topografia (SIFET).