Selecting the right model to simulate a specific watershed has always been a challenge, and field testing of watersheds could help researchers to use the proper model for their purposes. The performance of three popular Geographic Information System (GIS)-based watershed simulation models (European Hydrological System Model (MIKE SHE), Agricultural Policy/Environmental Extender (APEX) and Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)) were evaluated for their ability to simulate the hydrology of the 52.6 km2 Canagagigue Watershed located in the Grand River Basin in southern Ontario, Canada. All three models were calibrated for a four-year period and then validated using an independent four-year period by comparing simulated and observed daily, monthly and annual streamflow. The simulated flows generated by the three models are quite similar and closely match the observed flow, particularly for the calibration results. The mean daily/monthly flow at the outlet of the Canagagigue Watershed simulated by MIKE SHE was more accurate than that simulated by either the SWAT or the APEX model, during both the calibration and validation periods. Moreover, for the validation period, MIKE SHE predicted the overall variation of streamflow slightly better than either SWAT or APEX.

https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5338/1/1/20/pdf

Evaluating Three Hydrological Distributed Watershed Models: MIKE-SHE, APEX, SWAT

Coupling SWAT and ANN models for enhanced daily streamflow prediction

Research on the impact of water projects (dams or floodgates) on river hydrology and the surrounding environment is important in river basin management. However, it is a difficult scientific issue due to its complexity. Huai River Basin is a unique region in China with high densities in both population and water projects and is experiencing a serious pollution problem. Based on the extended SWAT model with consideration of dams & floodgates, this paper proposes a quantitative framework to assess the impact of dams & floodgates on the river flow regimes and water quality in the middle and upper reaches of Huai River Basin. The results show that: (1) The dams & floodgates reduced the basin's annual average flow by 2%, in comparison with the scenario of no water projects in the whole basin during 1991-2000, because of the regulation and storage of dams & floodgates. The flow in the non-flood season reduced 5% while the change of flow in the flood season was not acute. The impact of dams & floodgates on the annual flow are different in wet and dry years. In the wet year (1991), the impact of dams & floodgates is not obvious because the gates were opened to control the floods and their main functions are to change the temporal distribution in a year. In the dry year (1999), the flow reduced remarkably in comparison with the flow without dams & floodgates in the basin because the gates were closed in order to meet the water demand. The flow in the flood season increased by 8% whiles the flow in the non-flood season reduced by 12%. (2) There was a certain impact of dams & floodgates on water quality but they were quite different in the different area. It would be changed from the positive effect to the negative effect from the upriver to downstream. The dams & floodgates in the upper reaches played a positive role to improve water quality. But the ones in the middle and lower reaches played a negative role with contribution from 0 to 0.4. However, the contribution of exceeding pollutant discharge was more than 0.6. (3) The joint operation of dams & floodgates to control water quantity and quality will improve the water environment in Huai River Basin, but the key to improve the basin's water environment is pollution control. This research will guide the anti-pollution and the united water quantity and quality assessment of dams & floodgates in Huai River Basin. Moreover it will provide a foundation to achieve the integrated basin management and sustainability of Huai River Basin.

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Impact of Water Projects on River Flow Regimes and Water Quality in Huai River Basin

A study has been conducted to assess future climate change impacts on water resources of the Upper Sind River Basin using Soil Water Assessment Tool Sequential uncertainty fitting (SUFI-2) algorithm has been applied for model calibration and uncertainty analysis Monthly observed stream flows matched well with simulated flows with respect to p-factor, d-factor, Correlation coefficient and Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients with values of 073, 042, 082, 080 during calibration (1992–2000) and 042, 036, 096, 093 during validation (2001–2005) respectively PRECIS generated outputs under IPCC A1B Scenarios for Indian conditions corresponding to the baseline (1961–1990), midcentury (2021–2050) and endcentury (2071–2098); extracted by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune (India) have been used for the study It has been found from the model results that the average annual streamflow could increase by 164 % for the midcentury and a significant increase of 935 % by the endcentury The results also indicate that streamflow may rise drastically in monsoon season, but will decrease in non-monsoon season due to the projected future climate change

Assessment of Future Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources of Upper Sind River Basin, India Using SWAT Model

Land use/cover (LULC) and climate change are two main factors affecting watershed hydrology. In this paper, individual and combined impacts of LULC and climate change on hydrologic processes were analysed applying the model Soil and Water Assessment Tool in a coastal Alabama watershed in USA. Temporally and spatially downscaled Global Circulation Model outputs predict a slight increase in precipitation in the study area, which is also projected to experience substantial urban growth in the future. Changes in flow frequency and volume in the 2030s (2016-2040) compared to a baseline period (1984-2008) at daily, monthly and annual time scales were explored. A redistribution of daily streamflow is projected when either climate or LULC change was considered. High flows are predicted to increase, while low flows are expected to decrease. Combined change effect results in a more noticeable and uneven distribution of daily streamflow. Monthly average streamflow and surface runoff are projected to increase in spring and winter, but especially in fall. LULC change does not have a significant effect on monthly average streamflow, but the change affects partitioning of streamflow, causing higher surface runoff and lower baseflow. The combined effect leads to a dramatic increase in monthly average streamflow with a stronger increasing trend in surface runoff and decreasing trend in baseflow. Copyright (C) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Individual and combined effects of land use/cover and climate change on Wolf Bay watershed streamflow in southern Alabama

Already declining water availability in Huaihe River, the 6th largest river in China, is further stressed by climate change and intense human activities. There is a pressing need for a watershed model to better understand the interaction between land use activities and hydrologic processes and to support sustainable water use planning. In this study, we evaluated the performance of SWAT for hydrologic modeling in the Xixian River Basin, located at the headwaters of the Huaihe River, and compared its performance with the Xinanjiang (XAJ) model that has been widely used in China. Due to the lack of publicly available data, emphasis has been put on geospatial data collection and processing, especially on developing land use-land cover maps for the study area based on ground-truth information sampling. Ten-year daily runoff data (1987–1996) from four stream stations were used to calibrate SWAT and XAJ. Daily runoff data from the same four stations were applied to validate model performance from 1997 to 2005. The results show that both SWAT and XAJ perform well in the Xixian River Basin, with percentage of bias (PBIAS) less than 15%, Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) larger than 0.69 and coefficient of determination (R2) larger than 0.72 for both calibration and validation periods at the four stream stations. Both SWAT and XAJ can reasonably simulate surface runoff and baseflow contributions. Comparison between SWAT and XAJ shows that model performances are comparable for hydrologic modeling. For the purposes of flood forecasting and runoff simulation, XAJ requires minimum input data preparation and is preferred to SWAT. The complex, processes-based SWAT can simultaneously simulate water quantity and quality and evaluate the effects of land use change and human activities, which makes it preferable for sustainable water resource management in the Xixian watershed where agricultural activities are intensive.

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Evaluating the SWAT Model for Hydrological Modeling in the Xixian Watershed and a Comparison with the XAJ Model

Land use/land cover and climate change can significantly alter water cycle at local and regional scales. Xixian Watershed, an important agricultural area in the upper reach of the Huaihe River, has undergone a dramatic change of cultivation style, and consequently substantial land use change, during the past three decades. A marked increase in temperature was also observed. A significant monotonic increasing trend of annual temperature was observed, while annual rainfall did not change significantly. To better support decision making and policy analysis relevant to land management under climate change, it is important to separate and quantify the effect of each factor on water availability. We used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), a physically based distributed hydrologic model, to assess the impact of Land use and climate changes separately. The SWAT model was calibrated and validated for monthly streamflow. Nash-Sutcliff efficiency (NSE), percentage bias (PBIAS), and coefficient of determination (R
 2) were 0.90, 6.3 %, and 0.91 for calibration period and 0.91, 6.9 %, and 0.911 for validation period, respectively. To assess the separate effect of land use and climate change, we simulated streamflow under four scenarios with different combinations of two-period climate data and land use maps. The joint effect of land use and climate change increased surface flow, evapotranspiration, and streamflow. Climate variability increased the surface water and stream-flow and decreased actual evapotranspiration; and land use change played a counteractive role. Climate variability played a dominant role in this watershed. The differentiated impacts of land-use/climate variabilities on hydrological processes revealed that the unapparent change in stream-flow is implicitly because the effects of climate variability on hydrological processes were offset by the effects of land use change.

Effects of Land-Use and Climate Change on Hydrological Processes in the Upstream of Huai River, China

Water scarcity in Huaihe River, the sixth largest river in China, is stressed by the changing climate and intense human activities, especially in the headwater area. Xixian, situated in the upper reaches of the Huai River, is an important agricultural county with a population of more than one million people, and nearly one billion kg of crop yield every year. The projected climate changes and increasing population are expected to further complicate the utilization of already stressed water resources, endangering the agricultural activities in this area. There is pressing need for a watershed model to better understand the interaction between land use activities and hydrologic processes and to support sustainable water use. This study evaluated the performance of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for hydrologic modeling in the Xixian basin; three methods of calibration and uncertainty analysis (sequential uncertainty fitting, generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation, and parameter solu...

Xiuqin Fang

Papers

Evaluating the SWAT Model for Hydrological Modeling in the Xixian Watershed and a Comparison with the XAJ Model

Effects of Land-Use and Climate Change on Hydrological Processes in the Upstream of Huai River, China

Application of a SWAT Model for Hydrological Modeling in the Xixian Watershed, China