Semidistributed Hydrological Model with Scarce Information: Application to a Large South American Binational Basin

In this paper the process to implement the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in Catamayo-Chira binational basin (11,910.74 km2) in the border area between Ecuador and Peru (South America) is detailed. The basin under study has a low density of meteorological and hydrological stations as well as a notable variation in its biophysical characteristics, which further highlights the lack of information. The SWAT model requires a great amount of parameters for its implementation. Its performance was studied, even though the writers had scarce information. The SWAT model made a relatively satisfactory reproduction of the historical record of flows, i.e., Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient of 0.73, with certain limitations in calculation of sediment production. Two land-use scenarios were analyzed, observing that an increase of natural forest and shrub areas could significantly reduce sediment production.

• Autor principal: Oñate Valdivieso, F. (author)
• Formato: article
• Publicado em: 2013
• Assuntos: hydrologic modeling; scarce information; soil and water assessment tool (swat) model
• Acesso em linha: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000853; http://dspace.utpl.edu.ec/handle/123456789/19118