Influence of Change in Tree Density Under Selected Land use Land Cover System on Runoff Generation in Parts of Western Ghats, Karnataka

Veerabaswant Reddy, Chandrakantha. C. G, Purandara. B. K, Venkatesh. B, Choudri. B. S
2015 International Journal of Engineering Research and  
Sustainable management of land and water resources of catchment requires the information on water availability which is in turn depends upon the loss of water mainly through runoff. However, relationship between tree density under different land use system on runoff was poorly understood in Areangadi regions of Honnavar block Karnataka. Vegetation survey results shown that total stand density per ha was maximum of 5047.12 and 4962.75 per ha under natural forest. However, this was reduced 50.55
more » ... nd 50.55 percent at Acacia plantation and 88.05 and 88.84 per cent in degraded forest during 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively. The runoff under degraded watershed has given maximum as expected in comparison with Acacia and natural forest. During 2009-10, the percent of runoff was 46.23, 52.80 and 60.33 under natural forest, acacia and degraded watershed respectively. However, this was an increase of 5.58%, 8.71% and 11.52% under natural forest (NF), Acacia (AaP) and degraded (DF) watersheds during 2010-11. The specific discharge and specific peak discharge were observed maximum in the forested watershed followed by degraded and minimum in Acacia. However, peak specific discharge values are almost equal with respect to temporal variation in the entire watershed. Relationship between stand density, total runoff, specific discharge and peak specific was found increasing trend with the decrease of tree density in both degraded (DF) and Acacia (AaP) watersheds. However, in natural forest, except runoff, higher specific and specific peak discharge values are higher with the increase of tree density.
doi:10.17577/ijertv4is120458 fatcat:qkqnhgnocvd4hlyldbntp7hrqu