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Informing the SWAT model with remote sensing detected vegetation phenology for improved modeling of ecohydrological processes

Chen, Shouzhi ; Fu, Yongshuo H. ; Wu, Zhaofei ; Hao, Fanghua ; Hao, Zengchao ; Guo, Yahui ; Geng, Xiaojun ; Li, Xiaoyan ; Zhang, Xuan and Tang, Jing LU orcid , et al. (2023) In Journal of Hydrology 616.
Abstract

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model has been widely applied for simulating the water cycle and quantifying the influence of climate change and anthropogenic activities on hydrological processes. A major uncertainty of SWAT stems from the poor representation of vegetation dynamics due to the use of a simplistic vegetation growth and development module. Using long-term remote sensing-based phenological data, the SWAT model's vegetation module was improved by adding a dynamic growth start date and the dynamic heat requirement for vegetation growth rather than using constant values. The new SWAT model was verified in the Han River basin, China, and found its performance was much improved in comparison with that of the original... (More)

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model has been widely applied for simulating the water cycle and quantifying the influence of climate change and anthropogenic activities on hydrological processes. A major uncertainty of SWAT stems from the poor representation of vegetation dynamics due to the use of a simplistic vegetation growth and development module. Using long-term remote sensing-based phenological data, the SWAT model's vegetation module was improved by adding a dynamic growth start date and the dynamic heat requirement for vegetation growth rather than using constant values. The new SWAT model was verified in the Han River basin, China, and found its performance was much improved in comparison with that of the original SWAT model. Specifically, the accuracy of the leaf area index (LAI) simulation improved notably (coefficient of determination (R2) increased by 0.193, Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) increased by 0.846, and percent bias decreased by 42.18 %), and that of runoff simulation improved modestly (R2 increased by 0.05 and NSE was similar). Additionally, it is found that the original SWAT model substantially underestimated evapotranspiration (Penman-Monteith method) in comparison with the new SWAT model (65.09 mm (or 22.17 %) for forests, 92.27 mm (or 32 %) for orchards, and 96.16 mm (or 36.4 %) for farmland), primarily due to the inaccurate representation of LAI dynamics. Our results suggest that an accurate representation of phenological dates in the vegetation growth module is important for improving the SWAT model performance in terms of estimating terrestrial water and energy balance.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
LAI simulation, Runoff, SWAT modification, Vegetation phenology
in
Journal of Hydrology
volume
616
article number
128817
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85145552821
ISSN
0022-1694
DOI
10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128817
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
f4a8e627-d28e-436f-9029-a550851da2aa
date added to LUP
2023-02-13 10:42:52
date last changed
2023-11-21 17:02:37
@article{f4a8e627-d28e-436f-9029-a550851da2aa,
  abstract     = {{<p>The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model has been widely applied for simulating the water cycle and quantifying the influence of climate change and anthropogenic activities on hydrological processes. A major uncertainty of SWAT stems from the poor representation of vegetation dynamics due to the use of a simplistic vegetation growth and development module. Using long-term remote sensing-based phenological data, the SWAT model's vegetation module was improved by adding a dynamic growth start date and the dynamic heat requirement for vegetation growth rather than using constant values. The new SWAT model was verified in the Han River basin, China, and found its performance was much improved in comparison with that of the original SWAT model. Specifically, the accuracy of the leaf area index (LAI) simulation improved notably (coefficient of determination (R<sup>2</sup>) increased by 0.193, Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) increased by 0.846, and percent bias decreased by 42.18 %), and that of runoff simulation improved modestly (R<sup>2</sup> increased by 0.05 and NSE was similar). Additionally, it is found that the original SWAT model substantially underestimated evapotranspiration (Penman-Monteith method) in comparison with the new SWAT model (65.09 mm (or 22.17 %) for forests, 92.27 mm (or 32 %) for orchards, and 96.16 mm (or 36.4 %) for farmland), primarily due to the inaccurate representation of LAI dynamics. Our results suggest that an accurate representation of phenological dates in the vegetation growth module is important for improving the SWAT model performance in terms of estimating terrestrial water and energy balance.</p>}},
  author       = {{Chen, Shouzhi and Fu, Yongshuo H. and Wu, Zhaofei and Hao, Fanghua and Hao, Zengchao and Guo, Yahui and Geng, Xiaojun and Li, Xiaoyan and Zhang, Xuan and Tang, Jing and Singh, Vijay P. and Zhang, Xuesong}},
  issn         = {{0022-1694}},
  keywords     = {{LAI simulation; Runoff; SWAT modification; Vegetation phenology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Hydrology}},
  title        = {{Informing the SWAT model with remote sensing detected vegetation phenology for improved modeling of ecohydrological processes}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128817}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128817}},
  volume       = {{616}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}