Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Sediment yield across the Imo River Basin South- East Nigeria

Year 2020, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 184 - 190, 15.08.2020

Amara Uzor-totty Charles Uwadiae Oyegun

https://doi.org/10.30897/ijegeo.645611

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Soil and water are the two main natural
resources that sustain human existence on earth. Proper monitoring and
maintenance of these resources are done on basin level.  The IRB drains an area
of 7,951.03 km². The basin has a mean annual discharge of 120m³/sec
and generates significant surface runoff and sediment. The study aim was to
evaluate the sediment yield across IRB using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool
(SWAT) model. SWAT is a watershed-based,
semi-distributed hydrologic model for simulating hydrological processes at
different spatial scales. The model utilized digital elevation model DEM
to extract the river network, basin delineation, and sub-basin division. The sub-basins
were further divided into hydrological response unit HRU at a threshold of 5%
slope, 5% the land use and 5% soil.   Harmonized soil data and two land-use data of
1995 and 2010 were used to simulate the sediment yield across IRB.  The study result shows an increase in sediment
yield of 0.73 t/ha from1995 to 2010. Sub-basin 10 has the highest sediment
yield during the two periods; September and October are the months with the highest
sediment yield. 

Keywords

River basin, SWAT model, Sediment yield

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