| Title: | Sensitivity analysis of the parameters of the SWAT model and simulation of the hydrosedimentological processes in a watershed in the northeastern region of Brazil |
| Authors: | de Aragão, R., M.A.S. Cruz, J.R.A. de Amorim, L.C. Mendonça, E.E. de Figueiredo and V.S. Srinivasan |
| Year: | 2013 |
| Journal: | Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo |
| Volume (Issue): | 37 |
| Pages: | 1091-1102 |
| Article ID: | |
| DOI: | |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0100-06832013000400026&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic and pollutant |
| Primary Application Category: | sediment loss and transport |
| Secondary Application Category: | hydrologic assessment |
| Watershed Description: | 173.3 km^2 and 277.8 km^2 subwatersheds of the Japaratura River, in the state of Sergipe, in northeast Brazil. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | Erosion has been recognized as the main cause of soil degradation and is accelerated by
human intervention in watersheds, causing losses to the agricultural sector and damaging the
environment. To estimate the impacts caused by land use or climate changes on
hydrosedimentological processes, physically-based distributed models have been shown to be
quite effective. In this study, the SWAT model was calibrated and validated for two
subwatersheds of the Japaratuba Mirim river watershed, one located upstream of the Fazenda
Pão de Açúcar - PA (137.3 km2), and another located upstream of Fazenda Cajueiro - CJ
(277.8 km2) in the state of Sergipe, to simulate runoff and soil erosion. To test the sensitivity of
the calibrated parameters, the runoff was also simulated by a cross application of the 12 most
sensitive parameters in the two watersheds, from 1985 to 2000. The results showed that the
model was able to simulate the runoff and forecast, in a consistent way, the sediment yield.
However, while the cross application of the parameters from the bigger (CJ) to the smaller
watershed (PA) resulted in satisfactory Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) and percent bias
(PBIAS), the opposite was not true. |
| Language: | Portuguese |
| Keywords: | water erosion, sediment yield, hydrologic modeling |