Estimation of the Effect of Changes in Forest Associations on Runoff Processes in Basins: Case Study in the Hron and Topľa River Basins

Distributed rainfall-runoff model simulations are often used to evaluate the impact of changes on the generation of runoff. These models have the advantage of reflecting the effects of land use on spatially distributed model parameters. The article deals with changes in forest associations as a result of global climate changes. In this article the WetSpa model was used for estimating the impact of forest changes on the runoff regime in the Hron and Topla river basins, with an emphasis on the parameterization of the land cover properties in the runoff simulations. The parameters of the model were estimated using climate data and three digital map layers: a land-use map, soil map and digital elevation model. This work contains two land use change scenarios of forest associations and also two scenarios of global climate change. Both types of scenarios of changes were prepared, and the runoff under the new conditions was simulated.