Incorporation of the equilibrium temperature approach in a Soil and Water Assessment Tool hydroclimatological stream temperature model
Abstract. Stream temperature is an important indicator for biodiversity and sustainability in aquatic ecosystems. The stream temperature model currently in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) only considers the impact of air temperature on stream temperature, while the hydroclimatological stream temperature model developed within SWAT model considers hydrology and the impact of air temperature in simulating the water-air heat transfer process. In this study we propose using the equilibrium temperature approach to model complex heat transfer processes at the water-air interface, which reflects the influences of air temperature, solar radiation, wind speed and stream water depth on the heat transfer process. The thermal capacity of the streamflow is modelled by the variation of the stream water depth. An advantage of this equilibrium temperature model is the simple parameterization, with only two added parameters to model the heat transfer processes. The equilibrium temperature model is applied and tested in the Athabasca River Basin (ARB) in Alberta, Canada. The model is calibrated and validated at five stations throughout different parts of the ARB for which high-frequency observed stream temperature data are available. The results indicate that the equilibrium temperature model provided better and more consistent performances for the different regions of the ARB with the values of Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (> 0.67) greater than those of the original SWAT model and the hydroclimatological model. Overall, the equilibrium temperature model uses existing SWAT meteorological data as input, can be calibrated using fewer parameters and less effort, and has an overall better performance for the simulation of daily stream temperatures. Thus, it can be used as an effective tool for predicting the change in stream temperature regimes under varying hydrological and meteorological conditions. In addition, the impact of the stream temperature simulations on chemical reaction rates and concentrations was tested. The results indicate that the improved performance of the stream temperature simulation could significantly affect chemical reaction rates and the simulated concentrations and the equilibrium temperature model could be a potential tool to model stream temperature for water quality simulations.