Assessing the impacts of climate change on the forested watersheds in Korea using RCM scenarios

Abstract:

Climate change has significant effects on water resources in Korea, where about the 70% of areas are forested, by direct and indirect ways such as changes in forest species distribution and the growth rates. We explored the effect of climate change on water balance in the eight forested DAM watersheds by using a process-based hydrological model which integrates the various mechanisms of forest hydrology and developed the simplified impact response model to quantify the regional-scale impacts. As the first step of study, the GIS-based BROOK90 (gB90), operated on a grid resolution of 5×5 arc minute resolution under the RCP-based regional climate model (RCM) scenarios. To separate the effects of ecosystem functioning and distribution changes from the overall runoff change, modeling has conducted based on the three novel approaches of climate change with a doubled CO2 concentration, increases in the deciduous forest fraction at each watershed, and three RCM climate change. The results of the process-based model study are extended to develop the impact response model to assist policy makers to derive informed decisions in land, forest and water management.