Authors:
Devendra M. Amatya, Kim Hyunwoo, George M. Chescheir, R. Wayne Skaggs and Jami E. Nettles
Book:
After Wise Use – The Future of Peatlands, Proceedings of the 13th International Peat Congress: Peatland Forestry
Keywords:
agricultural-crop, drainmod, evapotranspiration, outflow, peak-flow-rate
Documentfile:
Amatya et al. 2008: Hydrologic effects of size and location of harvesting
Summary:
A calibrated DRAINWAT model was used to evaluate long -term hydrologic effects of conversion to agriculture of a 30 km2 pine forest on mostly organic soils in North Carolina, USA. Fifty years of weather data were used for determining baseline outflows. Simulation revealed that increased mean annual outflow was significant only for a 75% conversion at both upstream and downstream locations, with minimal changes for up to 25% conversion. While the high flow rates > 10 mm day-1 increased from 3 to 18% for 25 % to 50% conversion, the frequency increased three-fold and was consistently higher for downstream location than the upstream.