HR: 1330h
AN: H12B-0981    [PDF]
TI: Comparison of Streamflow Response Among ARS Experimental Watersheds Using SWAT
AU: * Van Liew, M
EM: mvanliew@grl.ars.usda.gov
AF: Michael Van Liew, USDA ARS Grazinglands Research Laboratory 7207 W. Cheyenne St, El Reno, OK 73036 United States
AU: Veith, T
EM: tveith@psu.edu
AF: Tamie Veith, USDA ARS Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit Building 3702, Curtin Road, University Park, PA 16802 United States
AU: Bosch, D
EM: dbosch@tifton.cpes.peachnet.edu
AF: David Bosch, USDA ARS Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory P.O. Box 946, Tifton, GA 31793 United States
AU: Hernandez, M
EM: mhernandez@tucson.ars.ag.gov
AF: Mariano Hernandez, USDA ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center 2000 E. Allen Road, Tucson, AZ 85719 United States
AU: Arnold, J
EM: arnold@brc.tamus.edu
AF: Jeff Arnold, USDA ARS Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory 808 E. Blackland Road, Temple, TX 76502 United States
AB: Long-term climatic and runoff data from experimental watersheds provide an essential foundation to calibrate and validate continuous watershed simulation models used for water resources or water quality applications. Proper calibration of a watershed simulation model is critical to ensure that hydrologic processes occurring on the watershed are well represented. Model validation is equally important to help provide a measure of confidence in the predictive capability of the model as scenarios that reflect changes in land management, land use, and climate variations are imposed on the watershed. With the rapidly increasing use of simulation models to assess the impacts of changes in land use, management practices, or climatic conditions on water resources and water quality at watershed scales, a need exists to determine model strengths and limitations for particular ecosystems and runoff regimes. In this study the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is used to predict hydrologic responses to long-term climatic conditions on USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) experimental watersheds throughout the United States. The objective of the study is to determine the suitability of the model to simulate streamflow under a wide range of ecosystems and runoff regimes. Portions of the available data sets are used to calibrate SWAT on the respective ARS watersheds, and other portions not used in calibration are then utilized to validate the performance of the model. Three quantitative and two qualitative evaluation criteria are used to assess streamflow simulated by SWAT: computation of 1) deviation of streamflow volume, 2) Nash Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency, and 3) prediction efficiency and visual inspection of 4) hydrographs and 5) flow duration curves. A comparison of simulation results on watersheds within the ARS network provides a basis to test model robustness, evaluate model application to other watersheds within a given physiographic and climatic region, and determine areas of model development that are needed for improved simulation of hydrologic processes.
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects
DE: 1836 Hydrologic budget (1655)
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 1860 Runoff and streamflow
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting