| Title: | Sensitivity of the SWAT model to the soil and land use data parametrisation: A case study in the Thyle Catchment, Belgium |
| Authors: | Romanowicz, A.A., M. Vanclooster, M. Rounsevell and I. La Junesse |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Journal: | Ecological Modelling |
| Volume (Issue): | 187(1) |
| Pages: | 27-39 |
| Article ID: | |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2005.01.025 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | input data effects |
| Secondary Application Category: | calibration, sensitivity, and/or uncertainty analysis |
| Watershed Description: | 59 km^2 Thyle River, a tributary of the Dyle River located in central Belgium. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | Simulated vs. measured peak flow comparisons at watershed outlet during 1999; E values listed here estimated from graph for 1/27/47/145 subwatersheds (det. LU = detailed land use; gen. LU = generic land use; det. soil = detailed soil map): det. LU + det. Soil = .20/.37/.45/.35 gen. LU + det. Soil = .20/.35/.40/.39 det. LU + gen. Soil = -/.15/.20/.18 |
| General Comments: | SWAT simulations were performed using combinations of 1:25,000 & 1:500,000 soil maps, and detailed and generalized land use maps. The results indicate that the model is very sensitive to the quality of soil and land use data, and to the data pre-processing strategy. The computed E values were not linearly related to the number of subwatesheds; the optimal values occurred at 47 subwatersheds and decreased at 145 subwatersheds (simulations were performed using 1, 27, 47, & 145 subwatersheds). Single HRUs with dominant soil and land use within each subwatershed, were assumed for each of the 32 simulations that were performed. SWAT was not calibrated for the analyses and thus the statistical analyses were relatively low; authors state that results were still satisfactory (RMS, RMSE, AE, CRM, and CNS statistics also reported). |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | Integrated hydrological modelling; Spatially distributed hydrological models; SWAT; Soil parametrisation; Aggregation |