| Title: | Soil and Water Assessment Tool model calibration results for different catchment sizes in Poland |
| Authors: | Ostojski, M.S., J. Niedbala, P. Orlinska, P. Wilk and J. Wrobel |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Journal: | Journal of Environmental Quality |
| Volume (Issue): | 43(1) |
| Pages: | 132-144 |
| Article ID: | |
| DOI: | 10.2134/jeq2011.0365 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic and pollutant |
| Primary Application Category: | calibration, sensitivity, and/or uncertainty analysis |
| Secondary Application Category: | nutrient cycling/loss and transport |
| Watershed Description: | 593.7 km^2 Gasawka River and 2,766.8 km^2 Rega River, which are both located in northwest Poland, and 54,500 km^2 Warta River which drains much of northwest and west central Poland. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | This article is part of a JEQ special SWAT section. |
| Abstract: | The watershed model SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) can be used as a tool to
implement the requirements of international agreements that Poland has ratified. Among these
requirements are the establishment of catchment-based, rather than administrative-based,
management plans and spatial information systems. Furthermore, Polish law requires that
management of water resources should be based on catchment systems. This article explores
the use of the SWAT model in the implementation of catchment-based water management in
Poland. Specifically, the impacts of basin size on calibration and on the results of the
simulation process were analyzed. SWAT was set up and calibrated for three different Polish
watersheds of varying sizes: 1) Gąsawka, a small basin (over 593.7 km^2), 2) Rega, a medium
sized basin (2766.8 km^2), and 3) Warta, a large basin (54,500 km^2) representing about 17.4%
of Polish territory. The results indicated that the size of the catchment has an impact on the
calibration process and simulation outputs. Several factors influenced by the size of the
catchment affected the modeling results. Among these factors are: the number of
measurement points within the basin and the length of the measuring period and data quality
at checkpoints as determined by the position of the measuring station. It was concluded that
the SWAT model is a suitable tool for the implementation of catchment-based water
management in Poland regardless of watershed size. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | |