Fact Sheet

The SWAT fact sheet provides a quick reference to SWAT resources.

Contacts

Jeff Arnold Hydraulic Engineer ARS-Temple jeff.arnold@ars.usda.gov
Nancy Sammons Computer Specialist ARS-Temple nancy.sammons@ars.usda.gov
Raghavan Srinivasan Agricultural Engineer AgriLife Research - College Station r-srinivasan@tamu.edu
Mauro DiLuzio Research Associate AgriLife Research - Temple mdiluzio@brc.tamus.edu

Model Objective

Predict the effect of management decisions on water, sediment, nutrient and pesticide yields with reasonable accuracy on large, ungaged river basins.

Model Components

Weather, surface runoff, return flow, percolation, ET, transmission losses, pond and reservoir storage, crop growth and irrigation, groundwater flow, reach routing, nutrient and pesticide loading, water transfer.

Model Operation

  • Daily time step-long term simulations
  • Basins subdivided to account for differences in soils, land use, crops, topography, weather, etc.
  • Basins of several thousand square miles can be studied
  • Soil profile can be divided into ten layers
  • Basin subdivided into subbasins or grid cells
  • Reach routing command language to route and add flows
  • Hundreds of cells/subbasins can be simulated in spatially displayed outputs
  • Groundwater flow model
  • SWAT accepts output from EPIC
  • SWAT accepts measured data and point sources
  • Water can be transferred from channels and reservoirs
  • Nutrients and pesticide input/output
  • Windows Interface
  • GRASS GIS links to automate inputs

References

Arnold, J.G., R. Srinivasin, R.S. Muttiah, and J. R. Williams. 1998. Large Area Hydrologic Modeling and Assessment: Part I. Model Development. JAWRA 34(1):73-89.

Arnold, J.G. and Allen P.M. 1992. A Comprehensive surface-groundwater flow model. J. Hydrol. 142:47-69.

Arnold, J.G., Williams, J.R., and Maidment D.A. 1992. Continuous-Time Water and Sediment-Routing Model for Large Basins. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Vol 121. No. 2., February, 1995, ASCE. Pgs. 171-183.

Srinivasan, R. and J.G. Arnold. 1994. Integration of a Basin-Scale Water Quality Model with GIS. Water Resources Bulletin. Vol. 30, No. 3., June 1994. Pgs. 453-462.

Srinivasan, R., J.G. Arnold, R.S. Muttiah, and P.T. Dyke. 1995. Plant and Hydrologic Simulation for the Conterminous U.S. Using SWAT and GIS. Hyd Sci &Tech, Vol. 11, No 1-4, Amer Inst of Hyd, Pg 160-168

Users

  • NRCS(Temple and other Locations)
  • EPA
  • Environmental Consulting Firms
  • Texas River Authorities
  • Universities
  • NOAA