Abstract
SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) is a continuous time, semi-distributed river basin model that has been widely used to evaluate the effects of alternative management decisions on water resources. This study, demonstrates the application of SWAT model for streamflow simulation in an experimental basin with daily and hourly rainfall observations to investigate the influence of rainfall resolution on model performance. The model was calibrated for 2018 and validated for 2019 using the SUFI-2 algorithm in the SWAT-CUP program. Daily surface runoff was estimated using the Curve Number method and hourly surface runoff was estimated using the Green and Ampt Mein Larson method. A sensitivity analysis conducted in this study showed that the parameters related to groundwater flow were more sensitive for daily time intervals and channel routing parameters were more influential for hourly time intervals. Model performance statistics and graphical techniques indicated that the daily model performed better than the sub-daily model. The Curve Number method produced higher discharge peaks than the Green and Ampt Mein Larson method and estimated better the observed values. Overall, the general agreement between observations and simulations in both models suggests that the SWAT model appears to be a reliable tool to predict discharge over long periods of time.
Highlights
Water resource problems, including the effects of urban development, alternative management decisions and future climate 25 oscillation on streamflow and water quality, require a deep understanding and accurate modeling of earth surface processes at the catchment scale in order to be addressed (Gassman et al, 2014)
A sensitivity analysis conducted in this study showed that the parameters related to groundwater flow were more sensitive for daily time intervals and channel routing parameters were more influential for hourly time intervals
The most sensitive parameters were deep aquifer percolation fraction (RCHRG_DP), groundwater delay 235 time (GW_DELAY), lateral flow travel time (LAT_TTIME), average slope steepness (HRU_SLP) and moist bulk density (SOL_BD). These parameters were connected to groundwater flow, runoff generation and channel routing
Summary
Water resource problems, including the effects of urban development, alternative management decisions and future climate 25 oscillation on streamflow and water quality, require a deep understanding and accurate modeling of earth surface processes at the catchment scale in order to be addressed (Gassman et al, 2014). Experimental catchments provide databases of longterm historical hydrological data which are useful in analyzing the mechanisms governing surface runoff as well as for developing and validating watershed, water quality and water resources management models (Goodrich et al, 2020). They are able to monitor the major components of the surface hydrological cycle by using remote sensing and geophysical 30 measurements (Tauro et al, 2018). Several sub-daily applications have been conducted such as land use and management impacts on flood events (Golmohammadi et al, 2017; Campbell et al, 2018), the use of high temporal resolution data for the improvement of the model (Bauwe et al, 2017; Boithias et al, 2017) and modeling of rainfall-runoff events (Jeong et al, 2010; Yu et al, 2018).
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