Assessing the effect of land use change on catchment runoff by combined use of statistical tests and hydrological modelling: Case studies from Zimbabwe

The purpose of this study was to identify and assess long-term impacts of land use change on catchment runoff in semi-arid Zimbabwe, based on analyses of long hydrological time series (25–50 years) from six medium-sized (200–1000 km 2) non-experimental rural catchments. A methodology combining common statistical methods with hydrological modelling was adopted in order to distinguish between the effects of climate variability and the effects of land use change. The hydrological model (NAM) was in general able to simulate the observed hydrographs very well during the reference period, thus providing a means to account for the effects of climate variability and hence strengthening the power of the subsequent statistical tests. In the test period the validated model was used to provide the runoff record which would have occurred in the absence of land use change. The analyses indicated a decrease in the annual runoff for most of the six catchments, with the largest changes occurring for catchments located within communal land, where large increases in population and agricultural intensity have taken place. However, the decrease was only statistically significant at the 5% level for one of the catchments.