Improvement of simulating sub-daily hydrological impacts of rainwater harvesting for landscape irrigation with rain barrels/cisterns in the SWAT model

A novel toolkit to streamline Land Use Land Cover change assessment in the SWAT+ model to enhance flood management and infrastructure decisions

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4139 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alex Rigby ◽

Sopan Patil ◽

Panagiotis Ritsos

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Decision Support ◽

Swat Model ◽

Decision Support Tool ◽

Flood Management ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

End User ◽

Support Tool ◽

Lulc Changes ◽

Hydrological Impacts

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) change is widely recognised as one of the most important factors impacting river basin hydrology.&#160; It is therefore imperative that the hydrological impacts of various LULC changes are considered for effective flood management strategies and future infrastructure decisions within a catchment. &#160;The Soil and Water assessment Tool (SWAT) has been used extensively to assess the hydrological impacts of LULC change.&#160; Areas with assumed homogeneous hydrologic properties, based on their LULC, soil type and slope, make up the basic computational units of SWAT known as the Hydrologic Response Units (HRUs).&#160; LULC changes in a catchment are typically modelled by SWAT through alterations to the input files that define the properties of these HRUs. &#160;However, to our knowledge at least, the process of making such changes to the SWAT input files is often cumbersome and non-intuitive.&#160; This affects the useability of SWAT as a decision support tool amongst a wider pool of applied users (e.g., engineering teams in environmental regulatory agencies and local authorities).&#160; In this study, we seek to address this issue by developing a user-friendly toolkit that will: (1) allow the end user to specify, through a Graphical User Interface (GUI), various types of LULC changes at multiple locations within their study catchment, (2) run the SWAT+ model (the latest version of SWAT) with the specified LULC changes, and (3) enable interactive visualisation of the different SWAT+ output variables to quantify the hydrological impacts of these scenarios.&#160; Importantly, our toolkit does not require the end user to have any operational knowledge of the SWAT+ model to use it as a decision support tool.&#160; Our toolkit will be trialled at 15 catchments in Gwynedd county, Wales, which has experienced multiple occurrences of high flood events, and consequent economic damage, in the recent past.&#160; We anticipate this toolkit to be a valuable addition to the decision-making processes of Gwynedd County Council for the planning and development of future flood alleviation schemes as well as other infrastructure projects.

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Land use changes and hydrological impacts related to up-scaling of rainwater harvesting and management in upper Ewaso Ng’iro river basin, Kenya

Land Use Policy ◽

10.1016/j.landusepol.2005.10.002 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 129-140 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Stephen N. Ngigi ◽

Hubert H.G. Savenije ◽

Francis N. Gichuki

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

River Basin ◽

Rainwater Harvesting ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Hydrological Impacts ◽

Up Scaling

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Hydrological impacts of rainwater harvesting (RWH) in a case study catchment: The Arvari River, Rajasthan, India. Part 1: Field-scale impacts

Agricultural Water Management ◽

10.1016/j.agwat.2010.09.003 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 98 (2) ◽

pp. 331-342 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

C.J. Glendenning ◽

R.W. Vervoort

Keyword(s):

Rainwater Harvesting ◽

Field Scale ◽

Hydrological Impacts

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Hydrodynamic modeling of the impact of residential rainwater harvesting systems on stormwater runoff and drainage networks

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/20184500089 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 45 ◽

pp. 00089 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Agnieszka Stec

Keyword(s):

Rainwater Harvesting ◽

Hydrodynamic Modeling ◽

Single Family ◽

Drainage Networks ◽

Harvesting Systems ◽

Family Housing ◽

Rain Barrels ◽

Pressure Flows ◽

The Impact ◽

Catchment Model

This paper presents the results of hydrodynamic modeling of urbanized catchment, where rainwater harvesting systems (RWH) was applied. The catchment model was developed in the Storm Water Managment Model program and RWH was simulated as one of the LID practices available in this program - rain barrels (RB). The research was carried out for various rain barrels implementation scenarios (50% -100%) in a single-family housing estate. However, the results of the research showed that the use of rain barrels (RB) to capture rainwater discharged from the roof of buildings was not effective in significantly reducing the outflow of water from the catchment, and thus reducing the occurrence of pressure flows in the analyzed sewage system.

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Evaluation of agricultural drought changes due to implementation of preventive drought management measures. Study case Torola basin

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9275 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

ana paez ◽

Gerald Corzo

Keyword(s):

Rainwater Harvesting ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Swat Model ◽

Threshold Level ◽

Agricultural Drought ◽

Mathematical Representation ◽

Drought Management ◽

Management Measures ◽

Before And After ◽

Surrounding Areas

Agricultural droughts are becoming more frequent and severe, triggering a range of pervasive effects on society, environment, and economy. In drought-prone areas, multiple interventions aimed at efficient water use and protecting water resources have been used as preventive drought management measures. However, many of these solutions are colloquial or implemented inconsistently, and the actual contribution to drought preparation and response is limited or unclear. This study evaluates the applicability and effectiveness of preventive drought management measures (Hydrological-based measures). To achieve this goal, we divided the work into two stages. First, a quantitative analysis consisted of a review, classification, and mathematical representation of potential preventive drought management measures. Second, a modelling-based analysis compared droughts characteristics before and after implementing three selected measures from the first stage (rainwater harvesting reservoirs, afforestation, and intercropping). The study was developed in the Torola basin, a drought-prone area located in Honduras northeast. We applied the threshold level method to detect and analyse drought characteristics and the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for hydrological modelling and representing the selected measures. We defined three scenarios for evaluating the effects of each measure. Results showed that selected measures increase infiltration and soil moisture content alleviating the severity and duration of drought events locally, but enhance the drought situation in surrounding areas.Keywords: Agricultural droughts, preventive drought management measures, SWAT model.

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Advanced Rainwater Harvesting through Smart Rain Barrels

World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2019 ◽

10.1061/9780784482339.008 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Martin Oberascher ◽

Jonatan Zischg ◽

Ulrich Kastlunger ◽

Martin Schöpf ◽

Carolina Kinzel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rainwater Harvesting ◽

Rain Barrels

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Hydrological impacts of rainwater harvesting (RWH) in a case study catchment: The Arvari River, Rajasthan, India

Agricultural Water Management ◽

10.1016/j.agwat.2010.11.010 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 98 (4) ◽

pp. 715-730 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

C.J. Glendenning ◽

R.W. Vervoort

Keyword(s):

Rainwater Harvesting ◽

Hydrological Impacts

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Evaluation of Integrating SWAT Model into a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis towards Reliable Rainwater Harvesting Systems

Water ◽

10.3390/w13141935 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 1935

Author(s):

Shahab Doulabian ◽

Erfan Ghasemi Tousi ◽

Reza Aghlmand ◽

Babak Alizadeh ◽

Alireza Ghaderi Bafti ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Analysis ◽

Rainwater Harvesting ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Swat Model ◽

Hydrologic Model ◽

High Potential ◽

Multi Criteria Decision Analysis ◽

Harvesting Systems ◽

Novel Strategy

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) has been recognized as one of the most reliable and efficient methods for water supply, especially in arid and semi-arid regions (ASARs) facing freshwater scarcity. Nevertheless, due to the inherent uncertainty of input data and subjectivity involved in the selection of influential parameters, the identification of RWH potential areas is a challenging procedure. In this study, two approaches for locating potential RWH sites were implemented. In the first approach, a frequently-used method of the multi-criteria decision analysis and geographic information system (MCDA-GIS) was utilized, while, in the second approach, a novel strategy of integrating the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model as a hydrology model into an MCDA-GIS method was proposed to evaluate its performance in locating potential RWH sites. The Mashhad Plain Basin (MPB) was selected as a case study area. The developed potential RWH maps of the two approaches indicated similar patterns for potential RWH areas; in addition, the correlation coefficient (CC) between the two obtained maps were relatively high (i.e., CC = 0.914) revealing that integration of SWAT as a comprehensive hydrologic model does not necessarily result in very different outputs from the conventional method of MCDA-GIS for RWH evaluation. The overlap of developed maps of the two approaches indicated that 3394 km2 of the study area, mainly located in the northern parts, was identified as high-potential RWH areas. The performed sensitivity analysis indicated that rainfall and slope criteria, with weights of 0.329 and 0.243, respectively, had the greatest sensitivity on the model in the first approach while in the second approach, the criterion of runoff coefficient (with weights of 0.358) had the highest impact. Based on results from the identification of the potential locations for conventional RWH techniques, pond and pan techniques are the most proper options, covering high-potential areas of RWH more effectively than other techniques over MPB.

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