Modification of SWAT for modelling streamflow from forested watersheds on the Canadian Boreal Plain

Abstract

Several modifications were made to the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to better represent processes occurring within forested watersheds on the Boreal Plain in Canada. The modified model, called SWATBF, was applied to the Willow Creek watershed (15.1 km2) in north central Alberta. The performance of the model for the calibration period (2001–2003) was good with coefficients of efficiency of 0.89 and 0.81 being achieved for the prediction of monthly and daily runoff, respectively. However, it was found that SWATBF did not perform as well for the validation period (2004–2006) with the monthly and daily coefficients of efficiency being 0.44 and 0.27, respectively. Potential sources of error to explain the decline in model performance for the validation period are discussed. SWATBF has the potential to be used as a tool by forest managers for predicting the effects of land use change on the Boreal Plain provided that it can be satisfactorily validated.

Evaluating the SWAT Model for a Low-Gradient Forested Watershed in Coastal South Carolina

“…Consistent with Feyereisen et al (2007), the model performance was very good, with an E value of 0.90 or higher, for both 2008 and 2009, which had higher than normal rainfall. These E values in our validation period were higher than the values (0.81 to 0.87) obtained by Wu and Xu (2006) for three coastal watersheds in Louisiana and also higher than the value of only 0.44 reported by Watson et al (2009) for a forested watershed in the Canadian boreal plain, suggesting that the model predictions in this study are better than those published data.…”

“…One reason for higher statistics is due to several days of zero and near-zero flows that the model was able to predict well. Although these evaluation statistics, especially the EĂvalues, were lower than those obtained by Wu and Xu (2006) for coastal Louisiana watersheds and by Watson et al (2009) for a forested watershed on the Canadian boreal plain, they were higher than those reported by Feyereisen et al (2007) for a watershed in coastal Georgia. None of these studies used the modified CN approach with a depletion coefficient.…”

“…For example, Watson et al (2009) made several modifications to the SWAT model (SWATBF) to better represent processes occurring within forested watersheds on the boreal plain in Canada. Although the authors reported that SWATBF did not perform as well for the validation period compared to the calibration period, it has the potential to be used as a tool by forest managers for predicting the effects of land use change on the boreal plain provided that it can be satisfactorily validated.…”

Development of opinion-based generic reforestation regimes and their application in vegetation management and water modelling in the Upper and Lower Foothills of Alberta

“…The soil and water assessment tool is a process-based hydrologic simulation model originally developed by the United States Department of Agriculture. The SWAT model was developed mainly for agricultural applications, therefore modifications were made to SWAT by the FORWARD research group to make it more representative of boreal forest watershed conditions (Watson et al 2009). The soil and water assessment tool is a deterministic, semi-distributed model that divides the landscape into sub-basins composed of hydrological response units, each representing a combination of landuse, vegetation, and soil type (Arnold et al 1998).…”

Watershed Management 2015

“…A study on the soil erosion and sedimentation using SWAT performed daily sediment yield simulation upon the Upper Blue Nile basin with a satisfactory agreement between daily observed and simulated sediment concentrations as indicated by Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency greater than 0.83 (Betrie et al 2011). SWAT was also selected to represent processes occurring within forest watershed on the Boreal Plain in Canada for modeling streamflow and water yield (Watson et al 2008). SWAT also models the movement and transformation of several forms of nitrogen and phosphorus, pesticides, and sediment in the watershed.…”