Analysis of Hydrological Characteristics of Blue Nile Basin, Nashe Watershed

Hydrological modeling is a technique for understanding hydrologic characteristics and estimation of the water balance of watersheds for integrated water resources development and management. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used for modeling the hydrological behavior of the Nashe watershed in the north-western part of Ethiopia. The spatial data, daily climate, and stream flow were the required input data for the model. The observed monthly stream flow data at the outlet and selected sub-watersheds in the catchment were used to calibrate and validate the model. The model performance was assessed between the simulated and observed streamflow by using sequential uncertainty fitting-2 (SUFI-2), generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation, parameter solution (Parasol) and particle swarm optimization. The sensitivity of 18 parameters was tested, and the most sensitive parameters were identified. The model performance was evaluated using p and r- factor, coefficient of determination, Nash Sutcliffe coefficient efficiency, percent bias during uncertainty analysis, calibration and validation. Therefore, based on the set of proposed evaluation criteria, the SUFI-2 algorithm has been able to provide slightly more reasonable outcomes and Parasol is the worst compared to the other algorithms. An analysis of monthly and seasonal water balance has been also accomplished for the Nashe catchment. The water balance parameters were distinct for the three seasonal periods in the catchment. The seasonal water budget analysis reveals that the watershed receives around 19%, 69%, and 12% of rainfall through the short rain, long rain and dry seasons, respectively. The received precipitation was lost due to evapotranspiration by 29%, 34% and 37% for each season respectively. The surface runoff contributes to the catchment by 5%, 86% and 9% of the water yield.

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A Review on SWAT Model for Stream Flow Simulation

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.726-731.3792 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 726-731 ◽

pp. 3792-3798

Author(s):

Wen Ju Zhao ◽

Wei Sun ◽

Zong Li Li ◽

Yan Wei Fan ◽

Jian Shu Song ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spatial Data ◽

Stream Flow ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Swat Model ◽

Flow Simulation ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Distributed Hydrological Model ◽

Rs And Gis ◽

Model Research ◽

Gis And Rs

SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model is one of distributed hydrological model, based on spatial data offered by GIS and RS. This article mainly introduces the SWAT model principle, structure, and it is the application of stream flow simulation in China and other countries, then points out the deficiency existing in the process of model research. In order to service in water resources management work better, experts and scholars further research the rate constant and uncertainty of the simplification of the model parameters, and the combination of RS and GIS to use, and hydrological scale problems.

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SWAT modeling of hydrology, sediment and nutrients from the Grand River, Ontario

Water Quality Research Journal ◽

10.2166/wqrj.2017.014 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 52 (4) ◽

pp. 243-257 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Aslam Hanief ◽

Andrew E. Laursen

Keyword(s):

Best Management Practices ◽

Stream Flow ◽

Lake Erie ◽

Management Practices ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Swat Model ◽

Model Performance ◽

Nutrient Export ◽

Spatial And Temporal Patterns ◽

Grand River

Abstract The Grand River watershed (GRW) is an important agricultural area in Southern Ontario. Land use has been modified by various human endeavors, altering hydrology and increasing export of sediment and nutrients. The objective of this study was to predict spatial and temporal patterns of hydrology, and export of sediment and nutrients from the GRW to Lake Erie using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The Sequential Uncertainty FItting (SUFI2) program was used to calibrate and validate stream flow for years 2001–2010. Calibration and validation of the SWAT model for monthly stream flow at York indicated good model performance (R2, NSE, and PBIAS = 0.64, 0.63 and 7.1 for calibration (2001–2005); = 0.82, 0.74 and 0.2, for validation (2006–2010)). The model was applied to predict sediment and nutrient export from the GRW into Lake Erie. Predicted loading at Dunnville (near the mouth) was 2.3 × 105 tonnes y−1 total suspended sediment, 7.9 × 103 tonnes y−1 TN, and 2.3 × 102 tonnes y−1 TP. This SWAT model can now be used to investigate the relative effects of best management practices, and to forecast effects of climate change, on sustainable water management, hydrology, and sediment and nutrient export to Lake Erie.

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Performance of HEC-HMS and SWAT to simulate streamflow in the sub-humid tropical Hemavathi catchment

Journal of Water and Climate Change ◽

10.2166/wcc.2021.072 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

N. C. Sanjay Shekar ◽

D. C. Vinay

Keyword(s):

Model Calibration ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Swat Model ◽

Model Performance ◽

Curve Number ◽

Coefficient Of Determination ◽

Hydrological Models ◽

Daily Streamflow ◽

Compensation Factor ◽

Elevation Model

Abstract The present study was conducted to examine the accuracy and applicability of the hydrological models Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC)- Hydrologic Modeling System (HMS) to simulate streamflows. Models combined with the ArcGIS interface have been used for hydrological study in the humid tropical Hemavathi catchment (5,427 square kilometer). The critical focus of the streamflow analysis was to determine the efficiency of the models when the models were calibrated and optimized using observed flows in the simulation of streamflows. Daily weather gauge stations data were used as inputs for the models from 2014–2020 period. Other data inputs required to run the models included land use/land cover (LU/LC) classes resulting from remote sensing satellite imagery, soil map and digital elevation model (DEM). For evaluating the model performance and calibration, daily stream discharge from the catchment outlet data were used. For the SWAT model calibration, available water holding capacity by soil (SOL_AWC), curve number (CN) and soil evaporation compensation factor (ESCO) are identified as the sensitive parameters. Initial abstraction (Ia) and lag time (Tlag) are the significant parameters identified for the HEC-HMS model calibration. The models were subsequently adjusted by autocalibration for 2014–2017 to minimize the variations in simulated and observed streamflow values at the catchment outlet (Akkihebbal). The hydrological models were validated for the 2018–2020 period by using the calibrated models. For evaluating the simulating daily streamflows during calibration and validation phases, performances of the models were conducted by using the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency (NSE) and coefficient of determination (R2). The SWAT model yielded high R2 and NSE values of 0.85 and 0.82 for daily streamflow comparisons for the catchment outlet at the validation time, suggesting that the SWAT model showed relatively good results than the HEC-HMS model. Also, under modified LU/LC and ungauged streamflow conditions, the calibrated models can be later used to simulate streamflows for future predictions. Overall, the SWAT model seems to have done well in streamflow analysis capably for hydrological studies.

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Hydrological modeling using the SWAT Model in urban and peri-urban environments: The case of Kifissos experimental sub-basin (Athens, Greece)

10.5194/hess-2021-482 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Evgenia Koltsida ◽

Nikos Mamassis ◽

Andreas Kallioras

Keyword(s):

Surface Runoff ◽

Hydrological Modeling ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Swat Model ◽

Model Performance ◽

Curve Number ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Time Intervals ◽

Curve Number Method ◽

Hourly Rainfall

Abstract. SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) is a continuous time, semi-distributed river basin model that has been widely used to evaluate the effects of alternative management decisions on water resources. This study, demonstrates the application of SWAT model for streamflow simulation in an experimental basin with daily and hourly rainfall observations to investigate the influence of rainfall resolution on model performance. The model was calibrated for 2018 and validated for 2019 using the SUFI-2 algorithm in the SWAT-CUP program. Daily surface runoff was estimated using the Curve Number method and hourly surface runoff was estimated using the Green and Ampt Mein Larson method. A sensitivity analysis conducted in this study showed that the parameters related to groundwater flow were more sensitive for daily time intervals and channel routing parameters were more influential for hourly time intervals. Model performance statistics and graphical techniques indicated that the daily model performed better than the sub-daily model. The Curve Number method produced higher discharge peaks than the Green and Ampt Mein Larson method and estimated better the observed values. Overall, the general agreement between observations and simulations in both models suggests that the SWAT model appears to be a reliable tool to predict discharge over long periods of time.

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Calibration and validation of SWAT model and estimation of water balance components of Shaya mountainous watershed, Southeastern Ethiopia

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/hessd-10-13955-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 13955-13978 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

A. A. Shawul ◽

T. Alamirew ◽

M. O. Dinka

Keyword(s):

Best Management Practices ◽

Management Practices ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Swat Model ◽

Watershed Modeling ◽

Coefficient Of Determination ◽

Water Yield ◽

Time Step ◽

Monthly Streamflow ◽

Mountainous Watershed

Abstract. To utilize water resources in a sustainable manner, it is necessary to understand the quantity and quality in space and time. This study was initiated to evaluate the performance and applicability of the physically based Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model in analyzing the influence of hydrologic parameters on the streamflow variability and estimation of monthly and seasonal water yield at the outlet of Shaya mountainous watershed. The calibrated SWAT model performed well for simulation of monthly streamflow. Statistical model performance measures, coefficient of determination (r2) of 0.71, the Nash–Sutcliffe simulation efficiency (ENS) of 0.71 and percent difference (D) of 3.69, for calibration and 0.76, 0.75 and 3.30, respectively for validation, indicated good performance of the model simulation on monthly time step. Mean monthly and annual water yield simulated with the calibrated model were found to be 25.8 mm and 309.0 mm, respectively. Overall, the model demonstrated good performance in capturing the patterns and trend of the observed flow series, which confirmed the appropriateness of the model for future scenario simulation. Therefore, SWAT model can be taken as a potential tool for simulation of the hydrology of unguaged watershed in mountainous areas, which behave hydro-meteorologically similar with Shaya watershed. Future studies on Shaya watershed modeling should address the issues related to water quality and evaluate best management practices.

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Stream flow simulation and verification in ungauged zones by coupling hydrological and hydrodynamic models: a case study of the Poyang Lake ungauged zone

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-21-5847-2017 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 21 (11) ◽

pp. 5847-5861 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Ling Zhang ◽

Jianzhong Lu ◽

Xiaoling Chen ◽

Dong Liang ◽

Xiaokang Fu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Resource ◽

Stream Flow ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Poyang Lake ◽

Swat Model ◽

Water Yield ◽

Lake Basin ◽

Observation Data ◽

Wet Season ◽

Annual Water

Abstract. To solve the problem of estimating and verifying stream flow without direct observation data, we estimated stream flow in ungauged zones by coupling a hydrological model with a hydrodynamic model, using the Poyang Lake basin as a test case. To simulate the stream flow of the ungauged zone, we built a soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model for the entire catchment area covering the upstream gauged area and ungauged zone, and then calibrated the SWAT model using the data in the gauged area. To verify the results, we built two hydrodynamic scenarios (the original and adjusted scenarios) for Poyang Lake using the Delft3D model. In the original scenario, the upstream boundary condition is the observed stream flow from the upstream gauged area, while, in the adjusted scenario, it is the sum of the observed stream flow from the gauged area and the simulated stream flow from the ungauged zone. The experimental results showed that there is a stronger correlation and lower bias (R2 = 0.81, PBIAS  =  10.00 %) between the observed and simulated stream flow in the adjusted scenario compared to that (R2 = 0.77, PBIAS  =  20.10 %) in the original scenario, suggesting the simulated stream flow of the ungauged zone is reasonable. Using this method, we estimated the stream flow of the Poyang Lake ungauged zone as 16.4 ± 6.2 billion m3 a−1, representing ∼ 11.24 % of the annual total water yield of the entire watershed. Of the annual water yield, 70 % (11.48 billion m3 a−1) is concentrated in the wet season, while 30 % (4.92 billion m3 a−1) comes from the dry season. The ungauged stream flow significantly improves the water balance with the closing error decreased by 13.48 billion m3 a−1 (10.10 % of the total annual water resource) from 30.20 ± 9.1 billion m3 a−1 (20.10 % of the total annual water resource) to 16.72 ± 8.53 billion m3 a−1 (10.00 % of the total annual water resource). The method can be extended to other lake, river, or ocean basins where observation data is unavailable.

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Hydrological modeling of Upper Ribb watershed, Abbay Basin, Ethiopia.

Global NEST Journal ◽

10.30955/gnj.003152 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Surface Runoff ◽

Hydrological Modeling ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Swat Model ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Coefficient Of Determination ◽

Climate Data ◽

Water Balance Components ◽

Discharge Data ◽

Forested Areas

<p>Hydrological modeling of a watershed is necessary for water resources planning and management. The hydrology of upper Ribb watershed has been analyzed using spatially semi-distributed Soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model. This study aimed to determine the water balance components and its relation with the rainfall which reaches to the surface of the earth. Different spatio-temporal (land use, soil, digital elevation model, climate data, river discharge) data were used for hydrological modelling of Upper Ribb watershed. The applicability of SWAT model in Upper Ribb watershed has been evaluated using coefficient of determination (R2) and Nash Sutcliff efficiency (NSE) parameters. The calibration results revealed the observed data showed a very good agreement with the simulated data with the R2 and NSE values of 0.90 and 0.84 respectively. Similarly, the validation results of streamflow were acceptable with the R2 and NSE values of 0.80 and 0.82 respectively. The monthly average streamflow from Upper Ribb watershed were found 13.39 m3/s. The major portion of the rainfall contributes to the surface runoff due to the major percentage of the watershed is covered with agricultural lands. The groundwater flow was high in forested areas, while evapotranspiration was found very high in water bodies (Ribb reservoir). In this study area the rainfall showed a direct relationship with the streamflow. The ratio of streamflow and evapotranspiration with rainfall was 0.61 and 0.36 respectively. Due to the presence of high amount of surface runoff and evapotranspiration the deep recharge which contributes to the ground water is not that much significant.</p>

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A Catchment Scale Assessment of Water Balance Components: A Case Study of Chittar Catchment in South India

10.21203/rs.3.rs-954410/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Dinagarapandi Pandi ◽

Saravanan Kothandaraman ◽

K S Kasiviswanathan ◽

Mohan Kuppusamy

Keyword(s):

Water Balance ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Moving Average ◽

Swat Model ◽

Meteorological Variables ◽

Coefficient Of Determination ◽

Time Interval ◽

Catchment Scale ◽

Water Balance Components ◽

Management And Development

Abstract Analyzing the Water Balance Components (WBCs) of catchment help in assessing the water resources for their sustainable management and development. This paper used Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model mainly to analyze the variation in the WBCs through the change in the Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) and meteorological variables. For this purpose, the model used the inputs of LULC and meteorological variables between the year 2001-2020 at five year and daily time interval respectively from the Chittar river catchment. The developed models were evaluated using SWAT-CUP split-up procedure (pre-calibration and post-calibration). The model was found to be good in calibration and validation, yielding the coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.94 and 0.81 respectively. Furthermore, WBCs of the catchment were estimated for the near future (2021 - 2030) at monthly and annual scale. For this endeavour, LULC was forecasted for the year 2021 and 2026 using Celluar Automata (CA)-ANN and for the same period meteorological variables were also forecasted using the smoothing moving average method from the historical data.

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Hydrological modeling for streamflow and sediment yield simulation using the SWAT model in a forest-dominated watershed of north-eastern Himalayas of Kashmir Valley, India

Journal of Hydroinformatics ◽

10.2166/hydro.2022.042 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Sarvat Gull ◽

Shagoofta Rasool Shah

Keyword(s):

Sediment Yield ◽

Hydrological Modeling ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Swat Model ◽

Model Performance ◽

Curve Number ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Influence Strategies ◽

North Eastern ◽

Performance Statistics

Abstract In this study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to examine the spatial variability of sediment yield, quantify runoff, and soil loss at the sub-basin level and prioritize sub-basins in the Sindh watershed due to its computational efficiency in complex watersheds. The Sequential Uncertainty Fitting-2 approach was used to determine the sensitivity and uncertainty of model parameters. The parameter sensitivity analysis showed that Soil Conservation Services Curve Number II is the most sensitive model parameter for streamflow simulation, whereas linear parameters for sediment re-entrainment is the most significant parameter for sediment yield simulation. This study used daily runoff and sediment event data from 2003 to 2013; data from 2003 to 2008 were utilized for calibration and data from 2009 to 2013 were used for validation. In general, the model performance statistics showed good agreement between observed and simulated values of streamflow and sediment yield for both calibration and validation periods. The noticed insights of this research show the ability of the SWAT model in simulating the hydrology of the Sindh watershed and its reliability to be utilized as a decision-making tool by decision-makers and researchers to influence strategies in the management of watershed processes.

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Modeling hydrologic processes and potential responses to climate change in an agro-silvo-pastoral watershed in the Mediterranean area

Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences ◽

10.5194/piahs-383-151-2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 383 ◽

pp. 151-158

Author(s):

Youssef Brouziyne ◽

Lahcen Benaabidate ◽

Aziz Abouabdillah ◽

Rachid Bouabid ◽

Abdelghani Chehbouni

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Balance ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Flow Direction ◽

Swat Model ◽

Water Yield ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Hydrologic Processes

Abstract. Precipitation changes and water use patterns are two factors affecting the water quantity; obviously, hydrologic processes are always linked to many elements in the watershed scale, so to understand water management issues it is fundamental to analyze the different elements of hydrologic processes occurring in the watershed. In this study, the “SWAT” model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) has been used to simulate the water balance for the present climate conditions on a semi arid watershed located in the central North of Morocco (R'dom). The study watershed covers an area of 1993 km2, and is hosting farming, pasture and forestry related activities. The water stress situation in the R'dom watershed can be summarized as limited resource facing increasing water demand. SWAT model was first run and calibrated under current climate; and was driven with downscaled climate simulations to generate future hydrological projections for R'dom watershed in the 2031 to 2050 horizon under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs): 4.5 and 8.5. The results of the study showed that the water balance in R'dom watershed is dominated by evapotranspiration and the water resources distribution within the watershed is uneven and follows a decreasing gradient matching the flow direction. The main results of climate change scenarios showed that R'dom watershed will undergo significant decrease of water resources availability with more economic impact under the scenario RCP8.5 as all areas hosting the economical activities will be affected and the highest changes of water yield should be under this scenario.

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