An improved representation of geographically isolated wetlands in a watershed‐scale hydrologic model

Evenson, Grey R.; Golden, Heather E.; Lane, Charles R.; D’Amico, Ellen

doi:10.1002/hyp.10930

Cited by 87 publications

(148 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Based on the detailed hydrotopographic information obtained from the PD program, the pothole features of the SWAT model are parameterized (step 4, Figure 1). However, SWAT is unable to simulate depressions in a dynamic and fully-distributed manner [25]. For example, the ponded area of a puddle at the beginning of the simulation differs from the one at the end of the simulation.…”

Section: Coupled Pd-swat Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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SWAT Modeling for Depression-Dominated Areas: How Do Depressions Manipulate Hydrologic Modeling?

Nasab

Singh

Chu

2017

Water

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Abstract:Modeling hydrologic processes for depression-dominated areas such as the North American Prairie Pothole Region is complex and reliant on a clear understanding of dynamic filling-spilling-merging-splitting processes of numerous depressions over the surface. Puddles are spatially distributed over a watershed and their sizes, storages, and interactions vary over time. However, most hydrologic models fail to account for these dynamic processes. Like other traditional methods, depressions are filled as a required preprocessing step in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The objective of this study was to facilitate hydrologic modeling for depression-dominated areas by coupling SWAT with a Puddle Delineation (PD) algorithm. In the coupled PD-SWAT model, the PD algorithm was utilized to quantify topographic details, including the characteristics, distribution, and hierarchical relationships of depressions, which were incorporated into SWAT at the hydrologic response unit (HRU) scale. The new PD-SWAT model was tested for a large watershed in North Dakota under real precipitation events. In addition, hydrologic modeling of a small watershed was conducted under two extreme high and low synthetic precipitation conditions. In particular, the PD-SWAT was compared against the regular SWAT based on depressionless DEMs. The impact of depressions on the hydrologic modeling of the large and small watersheds was evaluated. The simulation results for the large watershed indicated that SWAT systematically overestimated the outlet discharge, which can be attributed to the failure to account for the hydrologic effects of depressions. It was found from the PD-SWAT modeling results that at the HRU scale surface runoff initiation was significantly delayed due to the threshold control of depressions. Under the high precipitation scenario, depressions increased the surface runoff peak. However, the low precipitation scenario could not fully fill depressions to reach the overflow thresholds in the selected sub-basins. These results suggest the importance of depressions as gatekeepers in watershed modeling.

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Section: Coupled Pd-swat Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, SWAT is unable to simulate depressions in a dynamic and fully-distributed manner [25]. For example, the ponded area of a puddle at the beginning of the simulation differs from the one at the end of the simulation.…”

Section: Coupled Pd-swat Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

SWAT Modeling for Depression-Dominated Areas: How Do Depressions Manipulate Hydrologic Modeling?

Nasab

Singh

Chu

2017

Water

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“…Physically based hydrological models (e.g., Brunner and Simmons, 2012;Ameli and Creed, 2017) have not yet been integrated into our framework. However, fill-and-spill is a complex and spatially distributed hydrological process highly affected by many factors, such as surface topography, surface roughness, soil infiltration, soil properties, depression storage, precipitation, evapotranspiration, snowmelt runoff, and groundwater exchange (Tromp-van Meerveld and McDonnell, 2006a, b;Zhao and Wu, 2015;Evenson et al, 2016;Hayashi et al, 2016). Nevertheless, our study presents the first attempt to use lidar data for deriving nested wetland catchments and simulating flow paths in the broadscale Pipestem subbasin in the PPR.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Broad-scale prairie wetland hydrology has been difficult to study with traditional remote sensing methods using multispectral satellite data due to the limited spatial resolution and the interference of tree canopy (Klemas, 2011;Gallant, 2015). Lidar-derived DEMs can be used to map potential hydrologic flow pathways, which regulate the ability of wetlands to provide ecosystem services (Lang and McCarty, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, there is a call for treating prairie wetlands and catchments as highly integrated hydrological units because the existence of prairie wetlands depends on lateral inputs of runoff water from their catchments in addition to direct precipitation (Hayashi et al, 2016). Furthermore, hydrologic models for the PPR were commonly developed using coarse-resolution DEMs, such as the 30 m National Elevation Dataset (see Chu, 2015;Evenson et al, , 2016. Highresolution light detection and ranging (lidar) data have rarely been used in broad-scale (e.g., basin-or subbasin-scale) studies to delineate wetland catchments and model wetland connectivity in the PPR.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Delineating wetland catchments and modeling hydrologic connectivity using lidar data and aerial imagery

Lane

2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. In traditional watershed delineation and topographic modeling, surface depressions are generally treated as spurious features and simply removed from a digital elevation model (DEM) to enforce flow continuity of water across the topographic surface to the watershed outlets. In reality, however, many depressions in the DEM are actual wetland landscape features with seasonal to permanent inundation patterning characterized by nested hierarchical structures and dynamic filling-spilling-merging surface-water hydrological processes. Differentiating and appropriately processing such ecohydrologically meaningful features remains a major technical terrain-processing challenge, particularly as highresolution spatial data are increasingly used to support modeling and geographic analysis needs. The objectives of this study were to delineate hierarchical wetland catchments and model their hydrologic connectivity using high-resolution lidar data and aerial imagery. The graph-theory-based contour tree method was used to delineate the hierarchical wetland catchments and characterize their geometric and topological properties. Potential hydrologic connectivity between wetlands and streams were simulated using the least-cost-path algorithm. The resulting flow network delineated potential flow paths connecting wetland depressions to each other or to the river network on scales finer than those available through the National Hydrography Dataset. The results demonstrated that our proposed framework is promising for improving overland flow simulation and hydrologic connectivity analysis.

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Estimating Wetland Connectivity to Streams in the Prairie Pothole Region: An Isotopic and Remote Sensing Approach

Brooks

Mushet

Vanderhoof

et al. 2018

Water Resources Research

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Understanding hydrologic connectivity between wetlands and perennial streams is critical to understanding the reliance of stream flow on inputs from wetlands. We used the isotopic evaporation signal in water and remote sensing to examine wetland‐stream hydrologic connectivity within the Pipestem Creek watershed, North Dakota, a watershed dominated by prairie‐pothole wetlands. Pipestem Creek exhibited an evaporated‐water signal that had approximately half the isotopic‐enrichment signal found in most evaporatively enriched prairie‐pothole wetlands. Groundwater adjacent to Pipestem Creek had isotopic values that indicated recharge from winter precipitation and had no significant evaporative enrichment, indicating that enriched surface water did not contribute significantly to groundwater discharging into Pipestem Creek. The estimated surface water area necessary to generate the evaporation signal within Pipestem Creek was highly dynamic, varied primarily with the amount of discharge, and was typically greater than the immediate Pipestem Creek surface water area, indicating that surficial flow from wetlands contributed to stream flow throughout the summer. We propose a dynamic range of spilling thresholds for prairie‐pothole wetlands across the watershed allowing for wetland inputs even during low‐flow periods. Combining Landsat estimates with the isotopic approach allowed determination of potential (Landsat) and actual (isotope) contributing areas in wetland‐dominated systems. This combined approach can give insights into the changes in location and magnitude of surface water and groundwater pathways over time. This approach can be used in other areas where evaporation from wetlands results in a sufficient evaporative isotopic signal.

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An improved representation of geographically isolated wetlands in a watershed‐scale hydrologic model

Abstract: Abstract:Geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs), defined as wetlands surrounded by uplands, We then executed a series of novel modifications on the Pipestem Creek SWAT model. We

Cited by 87 publications

References 44 publications

SWAT Modeling for Depression-Dominated Areas: How Do Depressions Manipulate Hydrologic Modeling?

SWAT Modeling for Depression-Dominated Areas: How Do Depressions Manipulate Hydrologic Modeling?

Delineating wetland catchments and modeling hydrologic connectivity using lidar data and aerial imagery

Estimating Wetland Connectivity to Streams in the Prairie Pothole Region: An Isotopic and Remote Sensing Approach

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