Hydrological responses of three gorges reservoir region (China) to climate and land use and land cover changes

Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydraulic infrastructure in the world, playing a pivotal role in flood mitigation. The hydrological responses of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region (TGRR) to climate change and human activities are unclear, yet critical for the Three Gorges Dam’s flood control and security. We simulated streamflow and water depth by coupling the Variable Infiltration Capacity model and the CaMa-Flood model. Daily discharge at the outlet of TGRR was well modeled with a relative error within 2% and a Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient of approximately 0.81. However, the flood peak was overestimated by 2.5–40.0% with a peak timing bias ranging from 5 days earlier to 2 days later. Runoff and water depth in the TGRR increased from 2015 to 2018 but decreased during flood seasons. Land use and land cover changes in 2015 (LUCC2015) and 2020 (LUCC2020) were analyzed to quantify their hydrological impacts. During the 2015–2018 period, land use conversion increased in built-up areas (+ 0.6%) and water bodies (+ 0.1%), but decreased in woodland grassland (-0.7%) and cropland (-0.1%). This led to a slight increase in runoff and inflow of less than 4‰ across the TGRR, a 7.70% decrease in average water depth, and a 15.4‰ increase in maximum water depth. Water depths in the TGRR decreased during flood seasons, and increased during non-flood seasons. Increasing water depth was identified in northern TGRR. This study clarifies the historical TGRR’s hydrological features under LUCC and climate changes, aiding regional flood mitigation in the TGRR.