Suitability of common models to estimate hydrology and diffuse water pollution in North-eastern German lowland catchments with intensive agricultural land use
Muhammad WASEEM(), Frauke KACHHOLZ, Jens TRÄNCKNER
Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of Rostock, 18059 Rostock, Germany
Various process-based models are extensively being used to analyze and forecast catchment hydrology and water quality. However, it is always important to select the appropriate hydrological and water quality modeling tools to predict and analyze the watershed and also consider their strengths and weaknesses. Different factors such as data availability, hydrological, hydraulic, and water quality processes and their desired level of complexity are crucial for selecting a plausible modeling tool. This review is focused on suitable model selection with a focus on desired hydrological, hydraulic and water quality processes (nitrogen fate and transport in surface, subsurface and groundwater bodies) by keeping in view the typical lowland catchments with intensive agricultural land use, higher groundwater tables, and decreased retention times due to the provision of artificial drainage. In this study, four different physically based, partially and fully distributed integrated water modeling tools, SWAT (soil and water assessment tool), SWIM (soil and water integrated model), HSPF (hydrological simulation program– FORTRAN) and a combination of tools from DHI (MIKE SHE coupled with MIKE 11 and ECO Lab), have been reviewed particularly for the Tollense River catchment located in North-eastern Germany. DHI combined tools and SWAT were more suitable for simulating the desired hydrological processes, but in the case of river hydraulics and water quality, the DHI family of tools has an edge due to their integrated coupling between MIKE SHE, MIKE 11 and ECO Lab. In case of SWAT, it needs to be coupled with another tool to model the hydraulics in the Tollense River as SWAT does not include backwater effects and provision of control structures. However, both SWAT and DHI tools are more data demanding in comparison to SWIM and HSPF. For studying nitrogen fate and transport in unsaturated, saturated, and river zone, HSPF was a better model to simulate the desired nitrogen transformation and transport processes. However, for nitrogen dynamics and transformations in shallow streams, ECO Lab had an edge due its flexibility for inclusion of user-desired water quality parameters and processes. In the case of SWIM, most of the input data and governing equations are similar to SWAT but it does not include water bodies (ponds and lakes), wetlands and drainage systems. In this review, only the processes that were needed to simulate the Tollense River catchment were considered, however the resulted model selection criteria can be generalized to other lowland catchments in Australia, North-western Europe and North America with similar complexity.
. [J]. Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering, 0, (): 420-431.
Muhammad WASEEM, Frauke KACHHOLZ, Jens TRÄNCKNER. Suitability of common models to estimate hydrology and diffuse water pollution in North-eastern German lowland catchments with intensive agricultural land use. Front. Agr. Sci. Eng. , 0, (): 420-431.
MIKE SHE Spatial: flexible, Temporal: event based & continuous[38]
• Runoff on overland (2D diffusive wave equations) • Runoff in channels (1D diffusive wave equations solved by implicit fine-difference method) • Vertical flow (Richards equations) • Actual evapotranspiration[62] • Subsurface flow (3D groundwater flow equations solved using numerical finite-difference method and simulated river ground water exchange) • Chemical simulations (numerically solved advection-dispersion equation)
Tab.2
Tool
Category
Parameters
SWAT
Climate (6)
Rainfall, air temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, evapotranspiration and humidity/dew point
Hydrology and hydrogeology (7)
Water table height, hydraulic conductivity, groundwater extraction, initial shallow aquifer storage, recharge water, drain spacing, and irrigation
Soil data (7)
Layer thickness, bulk density, initial soil water content, field capacity*, wilting point*, hydraulic conductivity, and porosity
Land use and vegetation (7)
Land use, vegetation type, vegetation height, leaf area index, root depth, fertilizing rate, and crop management
Topography (6)
Area, elevation, land surface slope length, land surface slope steepness, hill slope length, and hill slope steepness
MIKE SHE
Climate (5)
Rainfall, air temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, and grass reference evaporation
Hydrology and hydrogeology (9)
Water table height, hydraulic conductivity (x-, y- and z-directions), specific yield, specific storage, groundwater extraction, initial shallow aquifer storage, recharge water, drain spacing, and irrigation
Soil data (6)
Layer thickness, bulk density, initial soil water content, field capacity, wilting point, and hydraulic conductivity
Land use and vegetation (5)
Land use, vegetation type, leaf area index, root depth, and fertilizer application rates
Topography (1)
Digital elevation model
HSPF
Climate (6)
Rainfall, air temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, evapotranspiration, and humidity/dew point
Hydrology and hydrogeology (3)
Active groundwater storage, interflow storage, and lower zone storage
Soil data (3)
Layer thickness, bulk density, and initial soil water content
Land use and vegetation (2)
Land use, and vegetation type
Topography (4)
Area, elevation, land surface slope length, land surface slope steepness
SWIM
Climate (6)
Rainfall, air temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, evapotranspiration, and humidity/dew point
Hydrology and hydrogeology (6)
Water table height, hydraulic conductivity, specific yield, groundwater extraction, drain spacing, Irrigation
Soil data (7)
Layer thickness, bulk density, initial soil water content, field capacity, wilting point, hydraulic conductivity, and porosity
Land use and vegetation (5)
Land use, vegetation type, leaf area index, root depth, and fertilizer application rates
Topography (7)
Area, elevation, land surface slope length, land surface slope steepness, hill slope length, hill slope steepness, and hill slope width
Tab.3
Item
Relevant models
SWAT
SWIM
ECO Lab*
HSPF
Initial soil nitrogen
Organic N
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Point sources
Organic N
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fertilizer nitrogen (crop-specific)
Organic N
•
•
Active organic N
•
•
Inorganic N
•
•
•
•
In-stream nitrogen
Organic N
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Atmospheric deposition
in rain
•
•
in rain
•
Tab.4
Fig.4
Item
Relevant models
SWAT
SWIM
ECO Lab
HSPF
Soil nitrogen
Organic N
•
•
•
•
•
•
Transport through surface runoff
in water
•
•
•
•
in water
•
•
Transport through interflow
•
•
•
•
•
•
Inorganic N
•
Transport through subsurface drainage flow
Inorganic N
•
Transport through groundwater flow
•
•
•
•
•
Transformation
Fixation
•
•
Nitrification
•
•
•
Ammonia volatilization
•
•
•
Denitrification
•
SWIM
•
•
Adsorption and desorption
Total N
•
•
Tab.5
Item
SWAT
HSPF
SWIM
DHI tools
Model type
Physically based and distributed
Physically based and distributed
Physically based and semi-distributed
Physically based and distributed
Flexibility to grid structure
Sub-basin structure but can be operated on grids
Sub-basin structure but can be operated on grids
Sub-basin structure but can be operated on grids
Flexible
Flexibility in resolution
Depends on the definition of sub-basins
Depends on the definition of sub-basin
Depends on the definition of sub-basins and hydrotopes
Flexible
Possibility of calibration
Automatic and manual
Tools available
Tools available
Automatic and manual
Tools availability
SWAT (The Soil & Water Assessment Tool) website, TAMU, USA
EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) website, USA
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany
MIKE powered by DHI, Denmark
License agreement
Open source
Open
Provided on request
License required
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