| Title: | Comparison and evaluation of model structures for the simulation of pollution fluxes in a tile-drained river basin |
| Authors: | Hoang, L., A. van Griensven, P. van der Keur, J.C. Refsgaard, L. Troldborg, B. Nilsson and A. Mynett |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Journal: | Journal of Environmental Quality |
| Volume (Issue): | 43(1) |
| Pages: | 86-99 |
| Article ID: | |
| DOI: | 10.2134/jeq2011.0398 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic and pollutant |
| Primary Application Category: | model and/or data comparison |
| Secondary Application Category: | tile drainage effects and/or processes |
| Watershed Description: | 622 km^2 Odense River on the island of Funen in Denmark |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | This paper is part of a special JEQ SWAT issue that will be published in early 2013. |
| Abstract: | The EU Water Framework Directive (2000) requires an integrated pollution prevention plan at the river basin level. Hydrological river basin modeling tools are therefore promising tools to support the quantification of pollution originating from different sources. So far, a limited number of studies have reported on the use of these models to predict pollution fluxes in tile-drained basins. This study focused on evaluating different modeling tools and modeling concepts to quantify the flow and nitrate fluxes in the Odense river basin using DAISY-MIKE SHE 12 (DMS) and SWAT. The results show that SWAT accurately predicted flow for both daily and monthly time steps while simulation of nitrate fluxes were more accurate at a monthly time step. In comparison to the DMS model which takes into account the uncertainty of soil hydraulic and slurry parameters, SWAT results for both flow and nitrate fit well within the range of DMS simulated values in high flow periods while they were slightly lower in low flow periods. In spite of the similarities of simulated flow and nitrate fluxes at the basin outlet, the two models predicted very different separations into flow components (overland flow, tile drainage and groundwater flow) as well as nitrate fluxes from flow components. It was concluded that the assessment on which model provides a better representation of the reality in terms of flow paths should not only be based on standard statistical metrics for the entire river basin but needs to consider additional data, field experiments and opinions of field experts. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | |