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Modelling groundwater quality of the Athabasca River Basin in the subarctic region using a modified SWAT model

Groundwater is a vital resource for human welfare. However, due to various factors, groundwater pollution is a paramount environmental concern. It is challenging to simulate groundwater quality dynamics with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) because it does not adequately model nutrient perc...

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Autores principales: Meshesha, Tesfa Worku, Wang, Junye, Melaku, Nigus Demelash, McClain, Cynthia N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8245482/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34193903
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92920-7
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author Meshesha, Tesfa Worku
Wang, Junye
Melaku, Nigus Demelash
McClain, Cynthia N.
author_facet Meshesha, Tesfa Worku
Wang, Junye
Melaku, Nigus Demelash
McClain, Cynthia N.
author_sort Meshesha, Tesfa Worku
collection PubMed
description Groundwater is a vital resource for human welfare. However, due to various factors, groundwater pollution is a paramount environmental concern. It is challenging to simulate groundwater quality dynamics with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) because it does not adequately model nutrient percolation processes in the soil. The objectives of this study were to extend the SWAT module to simulate groundwater quality for the parameters nitrate and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). The results of the SWAT model for the Athabasca River Basin in Canada revealed a linear relationship between observed and calculated groundwater quality. This result achieved satisfactory values for coefficient of determination (R(2)), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), and percent bias (PBIAS). For nitrate, the model performance measures R(2) ranged from 0.66–0.83 during calibration and NSE from 0.61–0.83. R(2) is 0.71 during validation and NSE ranged from 0.69–0.75. Likewise, for TDS, the model performance measures R(2) ranged from 0.61–0.82 during calibration and from 0.58–0.62 during validation. When coupled with soil zone and land surface processes, nitrate and TDS concentrations in groundwater can be simulated with the SWAT model. This indicated that SWAT may be helpful in evaluating adaptive management scenarios. Hence, the extended SWAT model could be a powerful tool for regional-scale modelling of nutrient loads, and to support and effective surface and groundwater management.
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spelling pubmed-82454822021-07-06 Modelling groundwater quality of the Athabasca River Basin in the subarctic region using a modified SWAT model Meshesha, Tesfa Worku Wang, Junye Melaku, Nigus Demelash McClain, Cynthia N. Sci Rep Article Groundwater is a vital resource for human welfare. However, due to various factors, groundwater pollution is a paramount environmental concern. It is challenging to simulate groundwater quality dynamics with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) because it does not adequately model nutrient percolation processes in the soil. The objectives of this study were to extend the SWAT module to simulate groundwater quality for the parameters nitrate and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). The results of the SWAT model for the Athabasca River Basin in Canada revealed a linear relationship between observed and calculated groundwater quality. This result achieved satisfactory values for coefficient of determination (R(2)), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), and percent bias (PBIAS). For nitrate, the model performance measures R(2) ranged from 0.66–0.83 during calibration and NSE from 0.61–0.83. R(2) is 0.71 during validation and NSE ranged from 0.69–0.75. Likewise, for TDS, the model performance measures R(2) ranged from 0.61–0.82 during calibration and from 0.58–0.62 during validation. When coupled with soil zone and land surface processes, nitrate and TDS concentrations in groundwater can be simulated with the SWAT model. This indicated that SWAT may be helpful in evaluating adaptive management scenarios. Hence, the extended SWAT model could be a powerful tool for regional-scale modelling of nutrient loads, and to support and effective surface and groundwater management. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8245482/ /pubmed/34193903 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92920-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2021, corrected publication 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Meshesha, Tesfa Worku
Wang, Junye
Melaku, Nigus Demelash
McClain, Cynthia N.
Modelling groundwater quality of the Athabasca River Basin in the subarctic region using a modified SWAT model
title Modelling groundwater quality of the Athabasca River Basin in the subarctic region using a modified SWAT model
title_full Modelling groundwater quality of the Athabasca River Basin in the subarctic region using a modified SWAT model
title_fullStr Modelling groundwater quality of the Athabasca River Basin in the subarctic region using a modified SWAT model
title_full_unstemmed Modelling groundwater quality of the Athabasca River Basin in the subarctic region using a modified SWAT model
title_short Modelling groundwater quality of the Athabasca River Basin in the subarctic region using a modified SWAT model
title_sort modelling groundwater quality of the athabasca river basin in the subarctic region using a modified swat model
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8245482/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34193903
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92920-7
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