Soil and Water Assessment

Tool (SWAT) Model

 Developed by Dr. Jeff Arnold in the late 1980’s
USDA-ARS at Temple, TX
 Designed to simulate the hydrology in large rural
watersheds
 Used to predict impact of land management
practices
 Water yields
 Sediment transport
 Agricultural chemicals
 Soil and Water Assessment
Tool (SWAT) Model
 Based on the many previous ARS models
 SWRRB (Simulator for Water Resources in
Rural Basins)
 EPIC (Erosion-Productivity Impact
Calculator)
 CREAMS (Chemicals, Runoff and Erosion
from Agricultural Management Systems)
 GLEAMS (Groundwater Loading Effects on
Agricultural Management Systems)
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Extensively validated in U.S. and internationally
 Stream flow / sediment yields / nutrient transport
 SWAT has been continuously improved in 1990s
 Now interfaced with GIS
 Takes advantage of National databases
 Topography / land use / soil mapping
 In 2001 SWAT was included in the EPA BASINS
3.0 software
 State-of-the-art modeling tools in one program
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Can be applied to large and small watersheds
 Entire U.S. or 10-acre field
 Takes into account varying:
 Soils
 Land uses
 Agricultural management treatments
 Continuous time model
 Uses a daily time step
 Not generally used to simulate a single rainfall event
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Continuous time model
 Long simulation periods (100 yrs or
more)
 Long term impacts of agricultural
practices
 Computationally efficient  large
watershed and/or long simulations
performed quickly
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Physically based model
 Weather
 Soils
 Topography
 Vegetation
 Land management practices
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Model outputs
 Water movement
 Sediment transport
 Crop growth
 Nutrient cycling
 Agricultural chemical transport
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Lumped parameter model
 Watershed divided into subbasins
 Based on topography
 Each subbasin will have at least:
 One HRU
 A tributary channel
 A main channel reach segment
 May have two types of impoundments 
ponds and/or wetlands
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Subbasins are assigned Hydrologic Response
Units (HRUs)
 HRUs based on:
 Land use / soil types / slope / management
practices
 Can have multiple HRUs in each subbasin
 The SWAT Model - HRUs
 An HRU is not the same as a field
 An HRU is the total area in a subbasin with
similar
 Land use / soil types / slope / management
 All similar areas are lumped together to
form 1 HRU
 Acts as a single response unit
 The SWAT Model - HRUs
 HRU assumption: No interaction between
HRUs in a subbasin
 Transport of sediment, nutrients, etc., in
runoff for each HRU are calculated
separately
 Output from each HRU is summed up
to determine total transport from a
subbasin
 Generally each subbasin has 1 to 10 HRUs
HRUs are generated by overlaying
Land Use maps with Soil maps
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Hydrology simulation
 Land phase / stream phase
 Land phase
 Controls transport to the main channel
 Water / sediment / agricultural chemicals
 Stream phase
 Transport through the channel network to the
watershed outlet
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Land phase mass balance
 Precipitation
 Soil water
 Surface runoff
 Evapotranspiration (ET)
 Infiltration
 Groundwater flow
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 The hydrology is simulated in each HRU
 Stream flow in a subbasin
 Summed up runoff / groundwater flow for
all HRUs
 Routed to the next subbasin downstream
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Required for each HRU:
 Weather data
 Soil type
 Land cover
 Slope
 Crop management
 Defaults are available
 Location of ponds and reservoirs
 Initial groundwater levels
 Stream characteristics
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Land phase processes
 Infiltration / surface runoff

 Controlled by the SCS curve number method

 Curve number goes up to 100

 At 100 all precip runs off

 Curve numbers are based on:

 Soil type

 Land cover

 Initial moisture content

 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 3 PET options
 Penman-Monteith

 Priestly-Taylor

 Hargreaves
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Model requires the following weather inputs
 Precipitation
 Maximum / minimum air temperatures
 Solar radiation
 Wind speed
 Relative humidity
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Weather generator always produces:
 Solar radiation
 Wind speed

 Relative humidity

 Weather generator can also produce (if

necessary):
 Precipitation

 Maximum / minimum air temperature

 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Measured weather inputs that can be used:
 Precipitation
 Maximum / minimum air temperatures
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Weather data generator
 Extensive weather station database in
SWAT
 Uses long-term weather data from closest
station
 The SWAT Model (cont.)
 Snow based on average daily air temperature
 Can simulate non-uniform snow cover due to:
 Shading / drifting / topography / land
cover
 Snowmelt on days that exceed 0oC
 Can have up to 10 elevation bands
 Snow simulated separately for each
elevation band