Lucban [Philippines] watershed's different tributaries streamflow measured

The Lucban River is the major tributary that drains 30% of the total water of Laguna de Bay through the Bataan Hydroelectric Power Plant in Majayjay, Laguna [Philippines]. This river irrigates vast rice paddies in the upstream portion of Mt. Banahaw de Lucban as headwater. It also provides potable drinking water to the towns of Lucban and Louisiana in Laguna through the Pagsipi Intake Box and Malinao Spring. According to Sagunto and Faller (SLSU) conservation of the river must be implemented to address the issue of high demand for water created by technology and high standards of living. In addition, there are other problems such as pollution and settlements. The main objectives of the study was to determine physical characteristics of the Lucban River or watershed and the differences of stream flow at different river tributaries arising from Mt.Banahaw to Lucban. The study specifically sought to determine: 1) physical characteristics of the Lucban watershed such as its boundary, topography, shape and climate; and 2) the measurement of stream flow from identified sampling point on the topographic map of Lucban up slope to its headwater or catchments area of Mt. Banahaw to Lucban. Findings of the study revealed the following: Lucban River or watershed has an area of 3,978.84 ha. It is generally hilly with steep slopes and narrow channels up slope to Mt.Banahaw of its headwater. It has an irregular shape and dendretic-to-semi-trellis drainage pattern in nature having a total of 46.3 km of streams of rivers. It has a stream density of 0.0015 and drainage density of 0.011636 km of permanent stream per square kilometer, with 1.33 computed compactness coefficient index of shape. This indicated that it has a great flood potential as it falls within type two of Corona's Philippine Climatic Classification. It has six river tributaries with Malinao River having the highest computed average stream flow of 9.61 sq m/second. This indicated that stream flow varied with different factors and not only its physical characteristics measure but included channel size, shape, load, precipitation, and discharge. Results of the study served as a reference for 1) the local and municipal governments of Lucban in planning and developing strategies; 2) watershed planners in that knowledge or information could be used to optimize physical resources and increase productivity of the watershed and its land carrying-capacity; 3) conservation management and protection, to reduce risk and damage from land degradation, erosion, siltation, and flood; and 4)students in the academe.