Effects of dynamic land use/land cover change on water resources and sediment yield in the Anzali wetland catchment, Gilan, Iran

Abstract Land use/land cover (LULC) changes strongly affect catchment hydrology and sediment yields. The current study aims at analyzing the hydrological consequences of dynamic LULC changes in the Anzali wetland catchment, Iran. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT 2012) model was used to assess impacts on evapotranspiration, water yield, and sediment yield. Two model runs were performed using static and dynamic LULC inputs to evaluate the effects of LULC change between 1990 and 2013. For the static model, the LULC map of 1990 was used, whereas for the dynamic model, a gradual change of the LULC distribution was interpolated from 1990, 2000, and 2013 LULC data. The major LULC changes were identified as an increase of agricultural area by 7% of the catchment area and a decrease of forest coverage by 6.8% between 1990 and 2013. At the catchment scale, the differences in the long-term mean annual values for the main water balance components and sediment yield were smaller than 10 mm (