Watershed Scale Nitrate-N Abatement of Instream Wetlands: An Appraisal Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-397
Author(s):  
Dagbegnon Clement Sohoulande Djebou ◽  
Ariel A. Szogi ◽  
Ken C. Stone ◽  
Jeffery M. Novak
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Point Sources ◽  
List Type ◽  
Watershed Scale ◽  
Stream Network ◽  
Nitrate N ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water

HighlightsSWAT used to address watershed scale nitrate-N abatement of instream wetlands (ISWs).Experimental ISW results were incorporated into the watershed modeling framework.SWAT successfully captured and reproduced ISW impact on nitrate-N at sub-basin level.Scenarios of ISWs implementation were simulated, effects on nitrate-N export were evaluated.Results show ISWs can be used as conservation structures aimed at enhancing water quality.Abstract. In watersheds under high agricultural production, nitrate nitrogen (nitrate-N) pollution often originates from intensive application of fertilizers and animal manure to croplands. Surface runoff and nitrate-N export from farmlands contributes to the pollution of nearby reaches which flow into the watershed stream network. Experimental studies reported significant nitrate removal capacities of constructed instream wetlands (ISWs). However, cases of large-scale implementations of ISWs are uncommon, probably due to a paucity of watershed-scale studies which highlight the influence of ISWs on riverine water quality. To elucidate the ISWs nitrate-N abatement potential at the watershed scale, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to model nitrate-N export in a highly agricultural watershed located in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina. SWAT was first calibrated and validated for streamflow and for nitrate-N export using data collected from the inlet and outlet of an experimental instream wetland. The validated SWAT model was used to simulate a decade of nitrate-N export under two scenarios: 1) watershed with ISWs implemented; and 2) watershed without ISWs. The results of the case study indicated that a watershed-wide implementation of ISWs is likely to curtail annual nitrate-N export by 49%. The study also evaluated cases where ISWs are implemented in selected percentage of sub-basins across the watershed. The outcomes show higher increments of nitrate-N curtailment when ISWs are implemented in the first top agricultural sub-basins. Hence, implementation of ISWs on selected sub-basins can mitigate nitrate-N from non-point sources and enhance water quality in the watershed’s stream network. Keywords: Runoff, Croplands, Instream wetland, Nitrate-N export, Denitrification, SWAT model, Watershed.

scholarly journals Deriving a country-wide soils dataset from the Soil Landscapes of Canada (SLC) database for use in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) Simulations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos R. C. Cordeiro ◽  
Glenn Lelyk ◽  
Roland Kröbel ◽  
Getahun Legesse ◽  
Monireh Faramarzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Complete Information ◽  
Runoff Generation ◽  
Screening Process ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Runoff Potential ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water

Abstract. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model has been commonly used in Canada for hydrological and water quality simulations. However, pre-processing of critical data such as soils information can be laborious and time-consuming. The objective of this work was to pre-process the Soil Landscapes of Canada (SLC) database to offer a country-level soils dataset in a format ready to be used in SWAT simulations. A two-level screening process was used to identify critical information required by SWAT and to remove records with information that could not be calculated or estimated. Out of the 14,063 unique soils in the SLC, 11,838 soils with complete information were included in the dataset presented here. Important variables for SWAT simulations that are not reported in the SLC database [e.g. hydrologic soils groups (HSGs) and erodibility factor (K)] were calculated from information contained within the SLC database. These calculations, in fact, represent a major contribution to enabling the present dataset to be used for hydrological simulations in Canada using SWAT and other comparable models. Analysis of those variables indicated that 21.3 %, 24.6 %, 39.0 %, and 15.1 % of the soils in Canada belong to HSGs 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. This suggests that almost two-thirds of the soils have a high (i.e., HSG 4) or relatively high (i.e., HSG 3) runoff generation potential. A spatial analysis indicated that 20.0, 26.8, 36.7 and 16.5 % of soil belonged to HSG 1, HSG 2, HSG 3, and HSG 4, respectively. Erosion potential, which is inherently linked to the erodibility factor (K), was associated with runoff potential in important agricultural areas such as southern Ontario and Nova Scotia. However, contrary to initial expectations, low or moderate erosion potential was found in areas with high runoff potential, such as regions in southern Manitoba (e.g. Red River Valley) and British Columbia (e.g. Peace River watershed). This dataset will be a unique resource to a variety of research communities including hydrological, agricultural and water quality modellers and are publicly available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.877298a.

scholarly journals Deriving a dataset for agriculturally relevant soils from the Soil Landscapes of Canada (SLC) database for use in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) simulations

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1673-1686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos R. C. Cordeiro ◽  
Glenn Lelyk ◽  
Roland Kröbel ◽  
Getahun Legesse ◽  
Monireh Faramarzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Complete Information ◽  
Runoff Generation ◽  
Screening Process ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Runoff Potential ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water

Abstract. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model has been commonly used in Canada for hydrological and water quality simulations. However, preprocessing of critical data such as soils information can be laborious and time-consuming. The objective of this work was to preprocess the Soil Landscapes of Canada (SLC) database to offer a country-level soils dataset in a format ready to be used in SWAT simulations. A two-level screening process was used to identify critical information required by SWAT and to remove records with information that could not be calculated or estimated. Out of the 14 063 unique soil records in the SLC, 11 838 records with complete information were included in the dataset presented here. Important variables for SWAT simulations that are not reported in the SLC database (e.g., hydrologic soils groups (HSGs) and erodibility factor (K)) were calculated from information contained within the SLC database. These calculations, in fact, represent a major contribution to enabling the present dataset to be used for hydrological simulations in Canada using SWAT and other comparable models. Analysis of those variables indicated that 21.3 %, 24.6 %, 39.0 %, and 15.1 % of the soil records in Canada belong to HSGs 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. This suggests that almost two-thirds of the soil records have a high (i.e., HSG 4) or relatively high (i.e., HSG 3) runoff generation potential. A spatial analysis indicated that 20.0 %, 26.8 %, 36.7 %, and 16.5 % of soil records belonged to HSG 1, HSG 2, HSG 3, and HSG 4, respectively. Erosion potential, which is inherently linked to the erodibility factor (K), was associated with runoff potential in important agricultural areas such as southern Ontario and Nova Scotia. However, contrary to initial expectations, low or moderate erosion potential was found in areas with high runoff potential, such as regions in southern Manitoba (e.g., Red River Valley) and British Columbia (e.g., Peace River watershed). This dataset will be a unique resource to a variety of research communities including hydrological, agricultural, and water quality modelers and is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.877298.

scholarly journals Evaluation of SWAT Soil Water Estimation Accuracy Using Data from Indiana, Colorado, and Texas

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 1827-1843
Author(s):  
Ahmed A. Hashem ◽  
Bernard A. Engel ◽  
Gary W. Marek ◽  
Jerry E. Moorhead ◽  
Dennis C. Flanagan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Soil Water Content ◽  
Soil Profile ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
List Type ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water

HighlightsSWAT soil water assessment was performed using soil water measurements.Dryland SWAT model soil water content was greater than the irrigated SWAT model.Using SWAT soil water estimates for real-time (daily) irrigation management purposes with the existing SWAT soil water subroutines and available soils data is considered risky.The surface layer showed the greatest soil water variability compared to deeper layers.Abstract. Soil water content (SWC) is a challenging measurement at the field, watershed, and regional scales. Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) soil water estimates were evaluated at three locations: the St. Joseph River watershed (SJRW) in northeast Indiana, the USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory (CPRL) at Bushland, Texas, and the USDA-ARS Limited Irrigation Research Farm (LIFR) at Greeley, Colorado. The soil water estimates were evaluated under two scenarios: (1) for the defined soil profile, and (2) by individual layer. Each site’s soil water assessment was performed based on the existing management conditions during each experiment, whether dryland or irrigated, and for various periods depending on SWC measurement availability at each site. The SWAT soil water was evaluated as follows: the Indiana site was evaluated under dryland conditions using daily soil water observations for one year; the Texas site was evaluated for a ten-year period under irrigated and dryland conditions using weekly soil water observations from four lysimeters; and the Colorado site was evaluated under irrigated conditions for a four-year period. The simulated soil water was evaluated by comparing the model simulations with observed daily and weekly soil water measurements at the three sites. Based on the results, even though all the SWAT models were considered to perform as good models following calibration (streamflow, ET, etc.), the soil water simulations were unacceptable for the defined soil profile and for individual layers at the three sites. Deeper soil layers had observations greater than field capacity values, indicating poor soil parameterization. The dryland model had greater water content than the irrigated model, contradicting the soil water measurements. This greater soil water simulation with the dryland model is a result of SWAT model uncertainties with ET reduction under dryland conditions due to water stress. This study indicated that soil water estimation using the default SWAT soil water equations has many sources of uncertainties. Two apparent sources resulted in the SWAT model’s poor performance: (1) SWAT soil water routines that do not fully represent soil water moving between layers to meet plant demand and (2) uncertainty in soil parameterization. Keywords: Hydrologic modeling, Soil moisture, Soil moisture sensor, Soil water, Soil and Water Assessment Tool.

Evaluation of SWAT Soil Water Estimation Accuracy Using Data from Indiana, Colorado, and Texas

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 1827-1843
Author(s):  
Ahmed A. Hashem ◽  
Bernard A. Engel ◽  
Gary W. Marek ◽  
Jerry E. Moorhead ◽  
Dennis C. Flanagan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Soil Water Content ◽  
Soil Profile ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
List Type ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water

HighlightsSWAT soil water assessment was performed using soil water measurements.Dryland SWAT model soil water content was greater than the irrigated SWAT model.Using SWAT soil water estimates for real-time (daily) irrigation management purposes with the existing SWAT soil water subroutines and available soils data is considered risky.The surface layer showed the greatest soil water variability compared to deeper layers.Abstract. Soil water content (SWC) is a challenging measurement at the field, watershed, and regional scales. Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) soil water estimates were evaluated at three locations: the St. Joseph River watershed (SJRW) in northeast Indiana, the USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory (CPRL) at Bushland, Texas, and the USDA-ARS Limited Irrigation Research Farm (LIFR) at Greeley, Colorado. The soil water estimates were evaluated under two scenarios: (1) for the defined soil profile, and (2) by individual layer. Each site’s soil water assessment was performed based on the existing management conditions during each experiment, whether dryland or irrigated, and for various periods depending on SWC measurement availability at each site. The SWAT soil water was evaluated as follows: the Indiana site was evaluated under dryland conditions using daily soil water observations for one year; the Texas site was evaluated for a ten-year period under irrigated and dryland conditions using weekly soil water observations from four lysimeters; and the Colorado site was evaluated under irrigated conditions for a four-year period. The simulated soil water was evaluated by comparing the model simulations with observed daily and weekly soil water measurements at the three sites. Based on the results, even though all the SWAT models were considered to perform as good models following calibration (streamflow, ET, etc.), the soil water simulations were unacceptable for the defined soil profile and for individual layers at the three sites. Deeper soil layers had observations greater than field capacity values, indicating poor soil parameterization. The dryland model had greater water content than the irrigated model, contradicting the soil water measurements. This greater soil water simulation with the dryland model is a result of SWAT model uncertainties with ET reduction under dryland conditions due to water stress. This study indicated that soil water estimation using the default SWAT soil water equations has many sources of uncertainties. Two apparent sources resulted in the SWAT model’s poor performance: (1) SWAT soil water routines that do not fully represent soil water moving between layers to meet plant demand and (2) uncertainty in soil parameterization. Keywords: Hydrologic modeling, Soil moisture, Soil moisture sensor, Soil water, Soil and Water Assessment Tool.

Watershed modeling using large-scale distributed computing in Condor and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool model

SIMULATION ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret W Gitau ◽  
Li-Chi Chiang ◽  
Mohamed Sayeed ◽  
Indrajeet Chaubey
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Best Management Practices ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Watershed Modeling ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water

Models are increasingly being used to quantify the effects of best management practices (BMPs) on water quality. While these models offer the ability to study multiple BMP scenarios, and to analyze impacts of various management decisions on watershed response, associated analyses can be very computationally intensive due to a large number of runs needed to fully capture the various uncertainties in the model outputs. There is, thus, the need to develop suitable and efficient techniques to handle such comprehensive model evaluations. We demonstrate a novel approach to accomplish a large number of model runs with Condor, a distributed high-throughput computing framework for model runs with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. This application required more than 43,000 runs of the SWAT model to evaluate the impacts of 172 different watershed management decisions combined with weather uncertainty on water quality. The SWAT model was run in the Condor environment implemented on the TeraGrid. This framework significantly reduced the model run time from 2.5 years to 18 days and enabled us to perform comprehensive BMP analyses that may not have been possible with traditional model runs on a few desktop computers. The Condor system can be used effectively to make Monte Carlo analyses of complex watershed models requiring a large number of computational cycles.

Modeling Miscanthus in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to Simulate Its Water Quality Effects As a Bioenergy Crop

2010 ◽  
Vol 44 (18) ◽  
pp. 7138-7144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tze Ling Ng ◽  
J. Wayland Eheart ◽  
Ximing Cai ◽  
Fernando Miguez
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Bioenergy Crop ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water

scholarly journals Application of the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model in the Ronnea catchment of Sweden

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 252-257
Keyword(s):  
Input Data ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Soil Parameters ◽  
Daily Step ◽  
Calibration And Validation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water

The subject of this article is the estimation of quantitative (hydrological) and qualitative parameters in the catchment of Ronnea (1800 Km2, located in south western Sweden) through the application of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). SWAT is a river basin model that was developed for the U.S.D.A. Agricultural Research Service, by the Blackland Research Center in Texas. The SWAT model is a widely known tool that has been used in several cases world-wide. It has the ability to predict the impact of land management practices on water, sediment and agricultural chemical yield in large complex watersheds. The present work investigates certain capabilities of the SWAT model which have not identified up to now. More in specific, the main targets of the work carried out are the following: • Identification of the existing hydrological and qualitative conditions • Preparation - Processing of data required to be used as input data of the model • Hydrological calibration - validation of the model, in 7 subbasins of the Catchment of Ronnea • Estimation and evaluation of the simulated qualitative parameters of the model All available data were offered by the relevant Institutes of Sweden, in the framework of the European program EUROHARP. The existing conditions in the catchment of Ronnea, are described in detail including topography, land uses, soil types, pollution sources, agricultural management practices, precipitation, temperature, wind speed, humidity, solar radiation as well as observed discharges and Nitrogen and Phosphorus substances concentrations. Most of the above data were used as input data for the application of SWAT model. Adequate methods were also used to complete missing values in time series and estimate additional parameters (such as soil parameters) required by the model. Hydrological calibration and validation took place for each outlet of the 7 subbasins of Ronnea catchment in an annual, monthly and daily step. The calibration was achieved by estimating parameters related to ground water movement and evaluating convergence between simulated and observed discharges by using mainly the Nash & Sutcliffe coefficient (NTD). Through the sensitivity analysis, main parameters of the hydrological simulation, were detected. According to the outputs of the SWAT model, the water balance of Ronnea catchment was also estimated. Hydrological calibration and validation is generally considered sufficient in an annual and monthly step. Hydrological calibration – validation in daily step, generally does not lead to high values of the NTD indicator. However, when compared to results obtained by the use of SWAT in Greece, a relatively high value of NTD is achieved in one subbasin. Finally, a comparison between the simulated and observed concentrations of total Phosphorus and Nitrogen was carried out.

Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) Hydrologic/Water Quality Model: Extended Capability and Wider Adoption

2011 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 1677-1684 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Tuppad ◽  
K. R. Douglas-Mankin ◽  
T. Lee ◽  
R. Srinivasan ◽  
J. G. Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Water Quality Model ◽  
Quality Model ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water

scholarly journals Estimating sediment yield at Kaduna watershed, Nigeria using soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model

Heliyon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. e02106 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Daramola ◽  
T.M. Ekhwan ◽  
J. Mokhtar ◽  
K.C. Lam ◽  
G.A. Adeogun
Keyword(s):  
Sediment Yield ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document