Impact of the spatial arrangement of land management practices on surface runoff for small catchments

Predicting the impact of land use changes on the hydrological response is crucial for water resource management. In the particular case of small catchments (1–10 km²), distributed models could provide useful answers regarding the effects of cultivation practices and man‐made works on water fluxes. However, the impacts of specific land use spatial arrangements are difficult to predict because of the prohibitive number of possible cases to consider. Focusing on surface runoff, this article describes a strategy based on a water particle tracking routine to be plugged‐in a distributed model that is designed to determine the spatial arrangements of land management practices that have the greatest impact on volume, peak discharge and lag time at the catchment outlet. A case study is described; the hydrological response of the Roujan catchment (Herault, France) is simulated with the MHYDAS model. The Roujan catchment contains a vineyard in a Mediterranean climate in a landscape in which weeding practices highly influence the partition between soil infiltration and runoff. Results showed that the proposed strategy is much more efficient than a random approach to design the spatial arrangements of the vineyard weeding practices with the greatest impact. Therefore, the proposed strategy may lead to innovative policies for the spatial planning of land management practices. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.