Streams face disturbances and disasters caused by human activities and climatic variability. To ensure rapid recovery and ecological stability, it's crucial to consider the influence of anthropogenic, geomorphological, and meteorological factors on st...
Streams face disturbances and disasters caused by human activities and climatic variability. To ensure rapid recovery and ecological stability, it's crucial to consider the influence of anthropogenic, geomorphological, and meteorological factors on stream resilience, such as recovery capacity and disturbance absorption. While many studies have examined the effects of watershed and meteorological factors on streams using water quality indices and vulnerability concepts, these indices and concepts often capture only static conditions, limiting the comprehensive, long-term evaluation of stream ecosystems needed to understand resilience variability. This study investigates the influence of watershed and meteorological characteristics on stream resilience. The specific objectives for achieving the research purpose are as follows. First, the 3Rs (redundancy, resourcefulness, and robustness) attribute-based metrics were applied to quantify stream resilience. The influence of watershed and meteorological characteristics on stream resilience was analyzed at both global and local scales within the Han River watershed using a random forest model. Second, dynamic change-based metrics were utilized to quantify the system performance of stream resilience. The resilience of reference and impaired streams to rainfall was compared by analyzing system performance variability, and recovery period values, and applying linear multiple regression and generalized additive models. The results of analyzing the effects of watershed and meteorological characteristics on stream resilience, variables determining the hydrological cycle, and the type of pollutant flowing into the stream exert a significant effect on resilience. Urban expansion and rising water temperatures were found to impede the increase in stream resilience. Conversely, steep slopes, high elevation, forest and well-drained area expansion, increased evapotranspiration, precipitation, and the 6-month standardized precipitation index accelerated resilience increase. Furthermore, the impact of regional differences on resilience increase was identified by comparing the spatial distribution of predicted resilience values with resilience at the local level. The results of analyzing the stream resilience of reference and impaired streams, the system performance of reference streams has a lower sensitivity to disturbance and recovers more quickly from the influence of rainfall. Consequently, reference streams have higher resilience than impaired streams to rainfall events. This study facilitates understanding changes in stream ecosystems of varying conditions in response to rainfall for ensuring long-term stability and adaptability. The findings of this study provide valuable scientific knowledge regarding the relationships between watershed and meteorological characteristics and stream resilience, which can assist policymakers in developing more effective watershed and stream management plans.