Assessment of Agricultural NonPoint Source Model for a Watershed in Tropical Environment
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 130, Issue 9
Abstract
Very little work on the application of watershed modeling has been done in the tropical climatic conditions of Thailand to explore the nature of environmental problems arising from nonpoint source pollution due to agricultural activities, and to evaluate possible remedial measures and strategies. The present study attempts to verify the suitability of a nonpoint source pollution model, the Agricultural NonPoint Source model, for the Huai Nong Prong watershed in Southeastern Thailand. Extensive fieldwork was carried out to collect data and information needed for the model preparation and application. The study has revealed that simulated runoff volume, sediment, and nutrient yield from the watershed with mixed land use and relatively high slopes match favorably with observed data. For the ten rainfall events simulated, the coefficient of performance, a measure of model efficiency (equal to zero for a perfect match), was 0.09, 0.47, 0.09, and 0.03 for runoff volume, sediment yield, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus, respectively. The model, however, could not accurately simulate peak flow rates, suggesting the need for changes in the modeling approach or governing equations and relationships to calculate peak discharges in a tropical environment.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 130 • Issue 9 • September 2004
Pages: 1032 - 1041
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 20, 2002
Accepted: Jun 23, 2003
Published online: Aug 16, 2004
Published in print: Sep 2004
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