Abstract
Abstract. The objective of this study was to assess the utility of the eco-hydrological SWAT model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool, Arnold et al., 1998) for representing water balance and nitrate fluxes given limited input and calibration data. The investigated catchment is located in Western Ukraine with an area of approximately 2616 km2. Land use is currently dominated by agriculture with significant areas of pasture, and has undergone a high degree of changes in land-use and agricultural practice since the end of the Soviet Union. Model application produced a fitted water balance (calibration: R2 = 0.52, NS = 0.46; validation: R2 = 0.47, NS = 0.51) and plausible ranges and dynamics of nitrate in stream loadings. Groundwater parameters were found to be highly sensitive. The results indicate that SWAT is an appropriate tool for water resource investigations in the Western Bug catchment, and can provide a useful tool for further eco-hydrologic research in the region (i.e. diffuse pollution impacts).
Highlights
The aim of the Water Framework Directive is to achieve clean water across the European Union
In the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, water balance is represented by several storage volumes, including: canopy storage, snow, soil profile, shallow aquifer, and deep aquifer (Eckhardt et al, 2002)
The dominating hydrological processes were found to be mainly controlled by groundwater dynamics and lateral subsurface flow, and as a result, groundwater parameters were found to be highly sensitive
Summary
The aim of the Water Framework Directive is to achieve clean water across the European Union Under this directive, water management is based on river basins (rather than administrative boundaries), and as a result some watersheds covered by the Directive are partially contained within nonEU countries. Within the IWAS Framework a IWAS-Toolbox is being developed to combine and extend existing modeling software in order to address coupled processes in the hydrosphere, especially for the analysis of hydrological systems in sensitive regions (Kalbacher et al, 2012) This Toolbox will allow a more realistic picture of hydro-systems to be developed; incrementally increasing the degree of process complexity and number of available tools for the integration of changing natural and socio-economic boundary conditions, such as climate change, land use or future population growth (Kalbacher et al, 2012). As a contribution to this Framework, the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was applied to simulate water and matter fluxes in the catchment area
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
