A setup for a scenario-driven water balance at landscape scale—assessment with AKWA-M®-Embedded in a model framework for land-use planning’s decision support in mountainous southwest China

Land-cover changes cause a loss of natural vegetation in many parts of the world. In the Xishuangbanna (西双版纳) district (Yunnan (云南) Province), rubber plantations replace tropical rainforests covering already an area of about 10% of the study area (2007). There, land-use allocation is mostly driven by economic considerations. Thus, local planning authorities need decision support for land-use planning issues, which integrate socio-economic and ecological aspects. Within the NabanFrame, an agro-economic, ecological and social model was applied, which, altogether, interacted with a land allocation model via defined interfaces. Effects on the water cycle, ecological conditions as well as socio-economic should be considered by integrating the spatially distributed rainfall-runoff and water balance model AKWA-M® in the model setup.