Combining digital soil mapping and hydrological modeling in a data scarce watershed in north-central Portugal

Wahren, Filipa Tavares; Jülich, Stefan; Nunes, João Pedro; González-Pelayo, Óscar; Hawtree, Daniel; Feger, Karl‐Heinz; Keizer, Jan Jacob

doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2015.08.023

Cited by 48 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Tavares Wahren et al . () found similar difficulties with SWAT in this region and pointed to possible limitations in simulating litter layer interception and soil water repellency shifts between the dry and wet seasons.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The initial parameterization was based on previous SWAT applications to the Caramulo mountains (Tavares Wahren et al ., ) and two nearby headwater forested catchments (Rial‐Rivas et al ., ). Vegetation parameters are shown in Table .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Streamflow is also concentrated during the wet season. The relatively shallow soils and hard bedrock in the Caramulo mountains limit water storage for evapotranspiration in summer (Hawtree et al ., ; Tavares Wahren et al ., ). This, associated with the prevalence of water repellent conditions (Santos et al ., ), leads to a large amount of rainfall percolating from the soil and reaching the streams as lateral flow (Boulet et al ., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Afforestation, Subsequent Forest Fires and Provision of Hydrological Services: A Model‐Based Analysis for a Mediterranean Mountainous Catchment

et al. 2017

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Mediterranean landscapes have experienced extensive abandonment and reforestation in recent decades, which should have improved the provision of hydrological services such as flood mitigation, soil erosion protection and water quality regulation. However, these forests are fire‐prone, and the postfire increase in runoff, erosion and sediment exports could negatively affect service provision. This issue was assessed by using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool model for the Macieira de Alcôba mountain catchment in northwestern Portugal, covered by agriculture and forest plantations, monitored in 2010–2014 and partially burnt in 2011. The model was validated for streamflow, sediment yield and erosion in agricultural fields and burnt hillslopes, showing that it can be adapted for postfire simulation. Model results for a decadal assessment (2004–2014) show that the fire increased erosion in the burnt slopes from 0.1 to 46.5 Mg ha−1 y−1 and catchment sediment yield from 0.14 to 2.1 Mg ha−1 y−1. Erosion in the burnt forest during this decade was 1 order of magnitude above that in agricultural fields. Model results for different fire and land‐use scenarios indicate that postfire erosion and sediment yield were lower without postfire soil management for reforestation and when the fire occurred in pine forests (land use before the 1990s) or in shrublands (land‐use before afforestation in the 1930s). These impacts were robust to changes in postfire weather and to a longer (20 years) unburnt period. The results suggest that, in the long term, Mediterranean fire‐prone forests might not provide the anticipated soil protection and water quality regulation services. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Afforestation, Subsequent Forest Fires and Provision of Hydrological Services: A Model‐Based Analysis for a Mediterranean Mountainous Catchment

et al. 2017

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“…As the composition of the ash layer was similar at the two sites (Table 2; Ferreira et al, 2015;Machado et al, 2015), on one hand, and on the other, as its thickness was twice as great at the BES (1 cm) than at the BEG site (0.5 cm), which expectedly would reduce overland flow and sediment losses (Bodí et al, 2011;Bodí et al, 2014;León et al, 2013), it is unlikely that the ash layer was responsible for the differences in P exports between the two eucalypt plantations. An alternative explanation would be the coarser texture of the granite soils (Table 1), since a coarse texture has been reported to increase infiltration and, thus, reduce runoff (Wahren et al, 2016), particularly at the micro-plot scale (Boix-Fayos et al, 2006;Shakesby, 2011). In fact, the plots at the eucalypt site on granite did generate lower amounts of overland flow and associated sediment losses than those at the eucalypt site of schist (Table 3).…”

Section: Phosphorus Exports By Overland Flowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-time phosphorus losses by overland flow in burnt pine and eucalypt plantations in north-central Portugal: A study at micro-plot scale

Ferreira

Serpa

Cerqueira

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

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“…Cotter et al [28] and Geza and McCray [74] suggested that decreases in soil map resolution may result in slower predicted flow. Wahren et al [43] showed that soil maps with different data content may provide a different representation of the peak flow after a dry period.…”

Section: Posterior Model Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Input Data Content on the Uncertainty of Simulating Water Resources

Camargos

Jülich

Houska

et al. 2018

Water

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Abstract:The widely used, partly-deterministic Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) requires a large amount of spatial input data, such as a digital elevation model (DEM), land use, and soil maps. Modelers make an effort to apply the most specific data possible for the study area to reflect the heterogeneous characteristics of landscapes. Regional data, especially with fine resolution, is often preferred. However, such data is not always available and can be computationally demanding. Despite being coarser, global data are usually free and available to the public. Previous studies revealed the importance for single investigations of different input maps. However, it remains unknown whether higher-resolution data can lead to reliable results. This study investigates how global and regional input datasets affect parameter uncertainty when estimating river discharges. We analyze eight different setups for the SWAT model for a catchment in Luxembourg, combining different land-use, elevation, and soil input data. The Metropolis-Hasting Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm is used to infer posterior model parameter uncertainty. We conclude that our higher resolved DEM improves the general model performance in reproducing low flows by 10%. The less detailed soil-map improved the fit of low flows by 25%. In addition, more detailed land-use maps reduce the bias of the model discharge simulations by 50%. Also, despite presenting similar parameter uncertainty (P-factor ranging from 0.34 to 0.41 and R-factor from 0.41 to 0.45) for all setups, the results show a disparate parameter posterior distribution. This indicates that no assessment of all sources of uncertainty simultaneously is compensated by the fitted parameter values. We conclude that our result can give some guidance for future SWAT applications in the selection of the degree of detail for input data.

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Combining digital soil mapping and hydrological modeling in a data scarce watershed in north-central Portugal

Cited by 48 publications

References 53 publications

Afforestation, Subsequent Forest Fires and Provision of Hydrological Services: A Model‐Based Analysis for a Mediterranean Mountainous Catchment

Afforestation, Subsequent Forest Fires and Provision of Hydrological Services: A Model‐Based Analysis for a Mediterranean Mountainous Catchment

Short-time phosphorus losses by overland flow in burnt pine and eucalypt plantations in north-central Portugal: A study at micro-plot scale

Effects of Input Data Content on the Uncertainty of Simulating Water Resources

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