Calibration and Validation of Soil and Water Assessment Tool on an Agricultural Watershed in Upstate New York
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 10, Issue 5
Abstract
Hydrologic (i.e., flow volumes) and sediment loading calibration and validation were completed for a New York City water supply watershed, the Cannonsville Reservoir basin, located in upstate New York. An unusually large amount of data exist for this watershed, with more than 20,000 data points consisting of climate, flow, and sediment measurements for calibration and validation. Hydrology results using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) displayed a Nash–Sutcliffe measure (NS) of 0.74 at the main monitoring station that drains 80% of the basin. Sediment results at this station came within 1% of average loading estimated from data for calibration (with one large storm and snowmelt event removed). Two of the three smaller drainage areas displayed calibrated hydrology NS values above 0.7. Adjustments in parameter values for calibration reflected northeastern conditions related to snowmelt events and fragipan soils. Validation of the hydrology and sediment results was based on an independent data set with no changes in parameter values. These validation results for hydrology showed an and an 8% difference in average flow volumes. Certain limitations of SWAT are discussed, including the model’s approach to snowmelt, sediment erosion, and sediment transport.
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Acknowledgments
The DEC, Cornell University’s WRI, the USGS, and the NYCDEP all provided data and insight that was vital to this project's completion. Thanks are given to Steve Pacenka (Cornell WRI), Keith Porter (Cornell WRI), Patricia Bishop (DEC), Carol Stepcheck (NYCDEP), and Dean Fraiser (Delaware County) for their dedication, support, and advice through the duration of the project. The advice on SWAT from the researchers at the Blackland Research Center (Texas A&M), especially Drs. Jeff Arnold, Susan Neitsch, and Nancy Sammons is greatly appreciated. The writers would like to acknowledge the work of Bryan Tolson (Cornell and University of Waterloo), who aided in the initial model development and calibration. J.B.’s tuition and stipend were funded under the EPA’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) fellowship, Grant No. U915552. C.S.’s time was supported by a Humboldt Research Prize (for research while at Rhine-Westfälian Technical University, Aachen, Germany) and partial funding from C.S.’s NSF grant BES-0229176. Safe Drinking Water Act grants from EPA through Delaware County supported parts of C.S.’s, S. Pacenka’s, and B. Tolson’s time for this project.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 10 • Issue 5 • September 2005
Pages: 363 - 374
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 13, 2002
Accepted: Oct 23, 2003
Published online: Sep 1, 2005
Published in print: Sep 2005
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