| Title: | Large scale hydrological simulations using SWAT, protocol development and application in the Danube Basin |
| Authors: | Pagliero, L., F. Bouraoui, P. Willems and J. Diels |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Journal: | Journal of Environmental Quality |
| Volume (Issue): | 43(1) |
| Pages: | 145–154 |
| Article ID: | |
| DOI: | 10.2134/jeq2011.0359 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | regionalization of input parameters |
| Secondary Application Category: | calibration, sensitivity, and/or uncertainty analysis |
| Watershed Description: | 803,000 km^2 Danube River covering portions of 14 countries in eastern Europe |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | This article is part of a JEQ special SWAT section. |
| Abstract: | The Water Framework Directive (WFD) of the European Union requires member states to
achieve good ecological status of all water bodies. A harmonized pan-European assessment of
water resources availability and quality, as affected by various management options, is
necessary for a successful implementation of European environmental legislation. In this
context, we developed a methodology to predict surface water flow at the pan-European scale
using available datasets. Among the hydrological models available, the Soil Water
Assessment Tool (SWAT) was selected because its characteristics make it suitable for large
scale applications with limited data requirements. This paper presents the results for the
Danube pilot basin. The Danube Basin is one of the largest European watersheds covering ca.
803,000 km^2 and portions of 14 countries. The modeling data used included land use and
management information, a detailed soil parameters map, and high resolution climate data.
The Danube Basin was divided into 4,663 subwatersheds of an average size of 179 km^2. A
modeling protocol is proposed to cope with the problems of hydrological regionalization
from gauged to ungauged watersheds, and over-parameterization and identifiability, which
are usually present during calibration. The protocol involves a cluster analysis for the
determination of hydrological regions and multi-objective calibration using a combination of
manual and automated calibration.The proposed protocol was successfully implemented, with
the modeled discharges capturing well the overall hydrological behavior of the basin |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | |