Assessment of land use change impact on river flows and sediment: a case of chindwin river basin, Myanmar | |
| Author | Shrestha, Sanju Thapa |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.WM-19-11 |
| Subject(s) | Land use--Myanmar--Chindwin River Basin Hydrology--Myanmar--Chindwin River Basin Sedimentation and deposition--Myanmar--Chindwin River Basin |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Water Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Anthropogenic activities has caused lots of disturbances in the nature and it’s been in most of the places of south East Asia and hence has its impact in Myanmar as well. Due to the fast development of economy in Myanmar, Chindwin river basin is facing more of unintentional and unmanaged changes. River flows and sediment yield has the most impact due to land use changes. This study tried to find out the future land use map Chindwin river basin and tried to quantify the impact of change in land use in river flows and sediment yield and also tried to introduce some land use management options to reduce sediment, as well as to analyze the cost of these options. Here the possible land use scenarios were created. The future maps were simulated using hydrological model Dyna-CLUE and to find out the impact of changes of land use on river flows and sediment yield hydrological model SWAT was developed. The reduction of sediment yield problem was done by introducing different management practices and the cost for these options were also analyzed using annual worth of cost per hectare. In order to simulate the changes in land use in future at Chindwin river basin from 2016-2045, three different scenarios were created, they were scenario 1 “Business as usual”, scenario 2 “Fast rate of forest conversion to agriculture” and scenario 3 “Off farm scenario”. All scenarios showed gradual increment in urban area and decline in range land and barren area. Also continuous decrease in agriculture in scenario 1 and 3. The increase in urban area in 2045 was highest under the scenario 1 with 8.885% and lowest under scenario 2 with 0.81%. Scenario 3 showed highest loss of agriculture with 7.4% and scenario 1 showed loss of agriculture 5.928%. Similarly forest area decreased by 39.87% in scenario 2. In case of river flows and sediment yield in scenario 2 fast rate of forest conversion to agriculture showed more increase in average annual flow as well as average annual sediment yield. The business as usual and off farm scenario also gave the increasing results in both. The seasonal flow and sediment yield was incline in wet season (May-Oct) and decline in dry season (Nov-March) in all the scenarios. For the reduction of sediment yield problem various individual and combined options for land use management were introduced and among them combined land use management options were more reliable in reduction of sediment production. The contouring only option was found to be least costly method. |
| Year | 2019 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Department of Civil and Infrastucture Engineering (DCIE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Water Engineering and Management (WM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Shrestha, Sangam; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Sutat Weesakul;Virdis, Salvatore G.P.;Ekasit Kositsakulchai;Thanapon Piman; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2019 |