Detection of the effect of land use change trends on discharge and sediment Simulated with SWAT model in Ojan Chay watershed

Land use change is one of the important factors in changing the hydrological flow, basin erosion and biodiversity destruction. Therefore, knowing the effect of land use change on discharge and suspended load is an inevitable necessity. The main purpose of this study is the efficiency test of the model and its usability as a simulation of the process of land use change on discharge and sediment is from the soil and water assessment model (SWAT) and SUFI2 program. Model simulation was performed for 29 years from 1987 to 2015, the first 5 years of which were selected for model calibration and the last 5 years for model results validation. Four statistical indices, r_factor, P_factor Nash-Sutcliffe (NS) and coefficient of determination (R2), the ratio of squared root-to-standard deviation (RSR) and the percentage of skewness (PBIAS) were selected monthly to evaluate the model. The accuracy of monthly simulation using NS evaluation index in the calibration and validation stage for flow and suspended load is equal to 0.65 and 0.49, respectively. The results of the study were considered acceptable according to the interpretive domains used in previous studies and indicate the satisfactory efficiency of the SWAT model in simulating the components of the impact of land use change on sediment and discharge in the Ojan Chay Bostanabad watershed. The results showed that the height of surface runoff increased by 1.15 mm and the sediment concentration increased by 1.5 tons per hectare per year.