Abeysingha et al. (2026) Impact of past, present and future land use and land cover changes on water yield and evapotranspiration in a small urban watershed in Texas, USA

Identification

• Journal: Watershed Ecology and the Environment
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-19
• Authors: N. S. Abeysingha, Ram L. Ray, Birhan Getachew Tikuye
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wsee.2026.09.001

Research Groups

• College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, Prairie View A&M University, USA
• Department of Agricultural Engineering and Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka

Short Summary

This study examines the impact of past, present, and future land use and land cover changes on water yield and evapotranspiration in a small urban watershed in Texas, USA. The results show that urbanization increases water yield and reduces evapotranspiration.

Objective

• Investigate how historical and projected future LULC changes influence annual and seasonal water yield patterns over different sub-watersheds within the Cypress Creek watershed.
• Examine the effects of LULC transitions on ET at both annual and seasonal scales, and how these impacts vary spatially within the watershed.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Watershed scale (749 km2)
• Temporal Scale: 2000-2040

Methodology and Data

• Models used:
  • SWAT+ (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model for simulating hydrology
  • TerrSet Land Change Modeler (LCM) module for projecting future LULC scenarios
• Data sources:
  • Climate data from Daymet gridded dataset (1982-2023)
  • Precipitation data from Harris County Flood Control District observatory network
  • Streamflow discharge data from USGS daily streamflow records
  • Land use and land cover maps from NLCD (2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020)

Main Results

• Water yield increased by 70.76% from 2000 to 2040
• Evapotranspiration decreased by 6.74%
• Developed areas show strong positive correlations with water yield (r > 0.94) and negative correlations with ET and percolation

Contributions

• This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the impact of LULC changes on hydrological responses in rapidly developing watersheds.
• The use of SWAT+ and TerrSet LCM framework offers a transferable tool for anticipating hydrological change with LULC change.

Funding

• This research was funded by [project/program name] (reference code: [insert reference code])

Citation

@article{Abeysingha2026Impact,
  author = {Abeysingha, N. S. and Ray, Ram L. and Tikuye, Birhan Getachew},
  title = {Impact of past, present and future land use and land cover changes on water yield and evapotranspiration in a small urban watershed in Texas, USA},
  journal = {Watershed Ecology and the Environment},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.wsee.2026.09.001},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsee.2026.09.001}
}