SWAT is a river basin scale model developed to quantify the impact of land management practices in large, complex watersheds. SWAT is a public domain model actively supported by the USDA Agricultural Research Service at the Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory in Temple, Texas, USA. SWAT allows a number of different physical processes to be simulated in a watershed. For modeling a watershed may be partitioned into a number of sub-watersheds. This a catchment model is able to quantify the impact of land management practices on flow and water quality. The model has widespread use internationally.
SWAT was developed to predict the impact of land management practice on water, sediment and agricultural chemical yields in large complex watersheds with varying soils, land use and management conditions over long periods of time.
| Latest Version | SWAT2009 revision in 2011 |
|---|---|
| State of Development | Stable Release |
| Current Development Activity | Active development by USDA and various research organasations. |
| Intended End Users | Specialist modellers supporting land and water managers |
|---|---|
| Spatial Extents | Unknown |
| Spatial Dimensions | Unknown |
| Temporal Resolutions | Days |
| Temporal Extents | Years, Decades |
| Steady State or Dynamic | Dynamic |
| Open/Closed Source | Unknown |
|---|---|
| Licence Type |
| Operating Systems | MS Windows |
|---|---|
| Software Needed | Unknown |
| User Interface | Please Select |
| Ease of Use | Moderate |
| Use in Policy Process | Plan (Policy Formulation), Do (Policy Implementation) |
| Documentation | Comprehensive documentation of theory and I/O formats. SWAT 2009 Theoretical Documentation: http://twri.tamu.edu/reports/2011/tr406.pdf SWAT 2009 Input/Output File Documentation: http://swat.tamu.edu/media/19754/swat-io-2009.pdf |
| Support | No formal support. Training seminars are run regularly and there is an annual SWAT conference. http://swat.tamu.edu/support/ http://swat.tamu.edu/education/ |
| Users Forum | Forum available |
| Programming Language | Fortran for the main engine code. ArcSWAT is written in a .net language |
|---|---|
| Methods included for calibration and validation | Calibration tools are provided in the SWATCUP tool from Eawag |
| Analytical Techniques | Input/output |
| Keywords | soil, water, sediment, chemical, land use, land management |
| Links | SWAT Model Home Page - http://swatmodel.tamu.edu/ An OpenMI compliant version is being developed, see http://www.openmi.org/reloaded/users/compliant-software/SWAT-IHE.html http://www.openmi.org/reloaded/news/OpenMI-Hype-Community.pdf HydroModeller version available. SWAT home page - http://swatmodel.tamu.edu/ |
| Key References | P. W. Gassman, M. R. Reyes, C. H. Green, J. G. Arnold - The Soil and Water Assessment Tool: Historical development, applications, and the future research directions - http://www.card.iastate.edu/environment/items/asabe_swat.pdf Ekanayake, J.C.; Davie, T. (2005). The SWAT model applied to predicting nitrate fluxes in the Motueka catchment. Motueka Integrated Catchment Management Report Series. Landcare ICM Report No. 2004-2005/04. Landcare Research. Lincoln, New Zealand. - http://icm.landcareresearch.co.nz/knowledgebase/publications/public/SWAT_modelling_N-04-05.pdf |
The ICM Motueka Research Programme was a 9 year programme which commenced in July 2000 and concluded in September 2010, and whose goal was to conduct multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder research to provide information and knowledge that will improve the management of land, freshwater, and near-coastal environments in catchments with multiple, interacting, and potentially conflicting land uses. The Motueka River has been used for this project.
Read moreThe impacts of land cover in critical water resources in the Motueka River catchment was modelled using SWAT as part of an Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) project.
Read moreSwat modeling of N fluxes in Motueka River http://icm.landcareresearch.co.nz/knowledgebase/publications/public/SWAT_modelling_N-04-05.pdf International Case Studies see: http://swat.tamu.edu/applications/
