Hydrological Impacts of Various Land Cover Types in the Context of Climate Change for Zala County

The water balance of Zala County was analyzed using remote-sensing based actual evapotranspiration (ETA) (Kovacs 2011) and runoff (R) in the context of land cover types. The highest mean ETA rates were determined for water bodies (658 mm/year) and wetlands (622 mm/year). Forests have higher values than agricultural areas, and the lowest rates belong to artificial surfaces. Mean annual runoff is the largest on artificial surfaces (89 mm/year), and it decreases on the other land cover types. For climate change impact analysis a Budyko-model was used in spatially-distributed mode. The parameter of the Budyko-model (α) was calculated for pixels without surplus water. For the extra-water affected pixels a linear model with β-parameter (actual evapotranspiration / pan- evapotranspiration) was used. These parameters (α and β) can be used for evaluating future ET A and R in spatially-distributed mode. According to the predictions, the mean annual evapotranspiration may increase about 27 mm while the runoff may decrease to the one third to the present amount by end of the century. evapotranspiration / runoff / land cover / Budyko-model / climate change