Effect of land use/cover change on the regimes of surface runoff for Lake Basaka catchment

Lake Basaka is expanding at a very fast rate. An appropriate method of estimating the surface runoff from such dynamic catchment is extremely important to delineate sensitive areas to be protected and to develop suitable management measures. In this study, the surface (direct) runoff was estimated using SCS-CN model, assisted by remote sensing and GIS. The result indicated that Lake Basaka catchment showed significant variability (temporal and spatial) in runoff responses depending on the rainfall amount and distribution pattern and land use/cover change. The significant increase of surface runoff (runoff coefficient) was observed to occur after 1973, which is in line with the significant increment of lake level after that period. The reduction in vegetation cover also resulted in increase of runoff coefficient of the Lake catchment from 0.07 in 1960s to about 0.23 in 2000s.