| Title: | Assessing the water-resources potential of Istanbul by using a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model |
| Authors: | Cuceloglu, G., K.C. Abbaspour and I. Ozturk |
| Year: | 2017 |
| Journal: | Water |
| Volume (Issue): | 9(10) |
| Pages: | |
| Article ID: | 814 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/w9100814 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | blue, green and/or gray water, or crop water productivity |
| Secondary Application Category: | calibration, sensitivity, and/or uncertainty analysis |
| Watershed Description: | 20,790 km^2 drainage area that surrounds the Istanbul, Turkey metropolitan area. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | Uncertainties due to climate change and population growth have created a critical situation
for many megacities. Investigating spatio-temporal variability of water resources is, therefore,
a critical initial step for water-resource management. This paper is a first study on the evaluation of
water-budget components of water resources in Istanbul using a high-resolution hydrological model.
In this work, the water resources of Istanbul and surrounding watersheds were modeled using the
Soil andWater Assessment Tool (SWAT), which is a continuous-time, semi-distributed, process-based
model. The SWAT-CUP program was used for calibration/validation of the model with uncertainty
analysis using the SUFI-2 algorithm over the period 1977–2013 at 25 gauge stations. The results
reveal that the annual blue-water potential of Istanbul is 3.5 billion m3, whereas the green-water
flow and storage are 2.9 billion m3 and 0.7 billion m3, respectively. Watersheds located on the
Asian side of the Istanbul megacity yield more blue-water resources compared to the European side,
and constitute 75% of the total potential water resources. The model highlights the water potential
of the city under current circumstances and gives an insight into its spatial distribution over the
region. This study provides a strong basis for forthcoming studies concerning better water-resources
management practices, climate change and water-quality studies, as well as other socio-economic
scenario analyses in the region. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | hydrological modeling; SWAT; SWAT-CUP; water-resources modeling; water availability;
water potential; Istanbul |