| Title: | Developing a decision support tool for assessing land use change and BMP's in ungauged watersheds based on decision rules provided by SWAT simulation |
| Authors: | Qi, J., S. Li, C.P.-A. Bourque, Z. Xing and F.-R. Meng |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Journal: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| Volume (Issue): | 22(7) |
| Pages: | 3789-3806 |
| Article ID: | |
| DOI: | 10.5194/hess-22-3789-2018 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic and pollutant |
| Primary Application Category: | model and/or data comparison |
| Secondary Application Category: | pollutant cycling/loss and transport |
| Watershed Description: | 300 km^2 Little River, a tributary of the Upper Saint John River located in northwest New Brunswick, Canada |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | Decision making on water resources management
at ungauged, especially large-scale watersheds relies on hydrological
modeling. Physically based distributed hydrological
models require complicated setup, calibration, and validation
processes, which may delay their acceptance among
decision makers. This study presents an approach to develop
a simple decision support tool (DST) for decision makers and
economists to evaluate multiyear impacts of land use change
and best management practices (BMPs) on water quantity
and quality for ungauged watersheds. The example DST developed
in the present study was based on statistical equations
derived from Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)
simulations and applied to a small experimental watershed
in northwest New Brunswick. The DST was subsequently
tested against field measurements and SWAT simulations
for a larger watershed. Results from DST could reproduce
both field data and model simulations of annual stream discharge
and sediment and nutrient loadings. The relative error
of mean annual discharge and sediment, nitrate–nitrogen,
and soluble-phosphorus loadings were -6, -52, 27, and
-16 %, respectively, for long-term simulation. Compared
with SWAT, DST has fewer input requirements and can be
applied to multiple watersheds without additional calibration.
Also, scenario analyses with DST can be directly conducted
for different combinations of land use and BMPs
without complex model setup procedures. The approach in
developing DST can be applied to other regions of the world
because of its flexible structure. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | |