Investigation of the impact of land use change on the hydrological ecosystem services in the Pasak River Basin, Thailand | |
| Author | Tadam Thanavanh |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.WM-22-03 |
| Subject(s) | Ecosystem services--Thailand--Pasak River Basin Land use--Thailand--Pasak River Basin Ecohydrology--Thailand--Pasak 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 | The ecosystem services are varying benefits of the natural environment providing to people. The services include provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. Those services provide both material and non-materials benefits, e.g., food, water, raw materials, hazard prevention, air cleaning, recreational or cultural value, etc. The hydrological ecosystem services are the subdivision of the ecosystem service that related to water and hydrology. As the land use change is one of the main factors that derive change the environment and ecosystem service, this study aims to investigate the impact of land use change on the hydrological ecosystem services (HESs) in the Pasak River Basin, Thailand, by using the ecosystem service modelling tool called Land Utilization Capability and Indicator (LUCI). The HESs in this study are flood mitigation service, water supply service (accumulation flow from landscape), soil loss, erosion risk area, and sediment delivery mitigation service. These HESs were mapped and quantified by LUCI under the land use of 2 timeframes (2020 and 2010). Then assessed the impact of the land use change of under the timeframes and developed different land use scenarios to enhance the HESs in the future. The result of this study shows that in the past 10 years, the forest area was invaded and shifted to agriculture land. Also, the majorities of the basin area are field crop and paddy field that are performing as low capacity of flow mitigating, non-mitigated flow can route directly to stream or river which can be summarized that the basin is susceptible to flood. However, the basin has low range of soil loss with 6.73 ton/ha/year, low risk to soil erosion and negligible risk of sediment delivery to stream network, river, or lake with 5.63 m3 /s of annual average flow from the landscape was estimated for water supply service. The results additionally emphasize the loss of forest area and expansion of agriculture land as the main cause to deteriorating in the HESs, especially declining in flood mitigation services. With this reason, it is suggested in this study that under conservation scenario, 5% increasing of forest and perennial, and 5% decreasing of paddy field and field crop by shifting the crops to perennial and orchard is the most suitable scenario for enhancing the HESs of the Pasak River Basin in the future. |
| Year | 2022 |
| 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) | Ho Huu Loc;Shrestha, Sangam (Co-Chairperson) |
| Examination Committee(s) | Shanmugam, Mohana Sundaram;Sarawut Ninsawat, |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Loom Nam Khong Pijai (Greater Mekong Subregion) Scholarships |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2022 |