Hydrological responses to land degradation in the Northwest Benin Owena River Basin, Nigeria.

Adequate insights into how land degradation alters the hydrology of river basins will help forecast the hydrological impacts of land cover change dynamics, thereby providing unique information required for sustainable river basin management. This study attempts to utilize a multi-dimensional methodology involving the application of the physically based Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model and Partial Least Square regression (PLSR) statistical model to evaluate the response of the hydrological components within the Northwest Benin Owena River Basin (NWBORB) in Nigeria to land degradation. Using the historic land cover maps of 1986, 2002, and 2015, covering the basin, the SWAT model was employed to simulate the hydrological components for each historic year.