Fields of Application of SWAT Hydrological Model—A Review

Abstract

Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is a widely used model for runoff, non-point source pollution, and other complex hydrological processes under changing environments (groundwater flow, evapotranspiration, snow melting, etc.). This paper reviews the key characteristics and applications of SWAT. Since its inception in the 1990s, there has been a significant increase in the number of articles related to the SWAT model. In the last 10 years, the number of articles almost reached 4000. The range of applications varies between small and large scales; however, large watershed modelling dominates in North America and Asia. Moreover, the prevailing modelling is related to hydrological impacts in a changing environment, which is a global problem. The significant shortcoming of the SWAT model is the vast quantity of data necessary to run the model to generate accurate and reliable results, which is not accessible in some regions of the world. Apart from its accessibility, it has several advantages, including continuous development, which results in a slew of new interfaces and tools supporting the model. Additionally, it can simulate human activity and agricultural measures and adapt to new circumstances and situations. This article emphasizes weaknesses and strengths of SWAT model application on modelling of hydrological processes in changing climate and environment.

The impact of land use and cover changes on river flows in Wundanyi Catchment of Taita Hills, Kenya (1970–2030)

“…The SWAT model developed by Arnold et al [17] is one of the most robust models available for watershed modelling. When used to model hydrological processes in large watersheds, SWAT considers water storage in different layers, as well as surface runoff, infiltration, soil moisture redistribution, evapotranspiration, lateral subsurface flow, storage in reservoirs and ponds, transmission losses in the stream and return flow [18]. A statistical multivariate trend analysis is imbedded in the SWAT model to assess the various LUCC forms and their correlations with catchment's hydrological processes.…”

“…The SWAT model has been successfully applied in various studies across the globe to assess the impacts of changes in land use and management practices on water quantity and quality at different scales and environmental conditions, even in areas with limited data [18][19][20]. The model is also capable of simulating various hydrologic processes of a catchment such as runoff and stream flow.…”

Temporal and Spatial Propagation Characteristics of the Meteorological, Agricultural and Hydrological Drought System in Different Climatic Conditions within the Framework of the Watershed Water Cycle

“…Groundwater simulation includes shallow groundwater, which contributes to river runoff as base flow; and deep groundwater in the deep pressure saturation zone. The calculation details of shallow groundwater, deep groundwater, and water yield in the hydrological response unit are available in Josip and Lidija [31].…”

Modelling future coastal water pollution: impacts of point sources, socio-economic developments & multiple pollutants

“…Global water quality models can help to generate this knowledge, especially for data-poor areas [15,16]. Examples of existing largescale water quality models are the Models to Assess River Inputs of pollutaNts to seAs (MARINA) [9,17,[18][19][20], Global Nutrient Export from WaterSheds (Global NEWS) model [21], Integrated Model to Assess the Global Environment-Global Nutrient Model (IMAGE-GNM) [10], dynamical surface water quality (DynQual) model [22], and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) [23][24][25]. While there is a wide variety of large-scale water quality models, there is also a large variety of pollutants to study, and each model has their strengths and limitations [26].…”