Abstract
Sediment discharge is one of the main water quality concerns in integrated watershed management. A proper identification of sediment sources is therefore important to the success of watershed conservation programs. Since water quality monitoring data collected at the mouth of the watershed alone are typically not sufficient for identifying key sediment sources distributed in the watershed, hydrologic models can be applied to prioritize Best Management Practices (BMPs) implementation for sediment control in a watershed. In this paper, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is applied to the South Tobacco Creek (STC) watershed in Canada to identify sediment sources and to estimate the spatial distribution of sediment yield from both upland and channel erosion processes. The model is calibrated and validated against observed flow and sediment data measured at fourteen edge-of-field and mainstream stations based on 20 years of land management data. Modeling results show that approximately 60 and 40 % of the sediment discharge at the mouth of the watershed are originated from channel erosion and upland erosion respectively. A high spatial and temporal variation of sediment yield is found in the watershed depending on climate, topography, land use, and soil conditions. These findings will be helpful for understanding the runoff and erosion processes and evaluating the cost-effectiveness of soil and water conservation programs at a watershed scale.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arnold JG, Srinivasan R, Muttiah RS, Williams JR (1998) Large area hydrologic modeling and assessment. J Am Water Resour As 34(1):73–89
Bagnold RA (1977) Bedload transport in natural rivers. Water Resour Res 13(2):303–312
Borah DK, Bera M (2004) Watershed-scale hydrologic and nonpoint-source pollution models: review of applications. Trans ASAE 47(3):789–803
Chu TW, Shirmohammadi A, Montas H, Sadeghi A (2004) Evaluation of the SWAT model’s sediment and nutrient components in the Piedmont physiographic region of Maryland. Trans ASAE 47(5):1523–1538
Doll BA, Grabow GL, Hall KR, Halley J, Harman WA, Jennings GD, Wise DE (2003) Stream Restoration: A Natural Channel Design Handbook. NC Stream Restoration Institute, NC State University. 128 pp.
Gikas GD, Yiannakopoulou T, Tsihrintzis VA (2006) Modeling of non-point source pollution in a Mediterranean drainage basin. Environ Model Assess 11(3):219–233
Hope J, Harker DB, Townley SL (2002) Long term land use trends for water quality protection, ten years of monitoring in the South tobacco creek watershed. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada – PFRA, Regina
Koiter AJ, Lobb DA, Owens PN, PEtticrew EL, Tiessen KHD, Li S (2013) Investigating the role of connectivity and scale in assessing the sources of sediment in an agricultural watershed in the Canadian prairies using sediment source fingerprinting. J Soils Sediments 13:1676–1691
Mishra A, Kar S, Singh VP (2007) Prioritizing structural management by quantifying the effect of land use and land cover on watershed runoff and sediment yield. Water Resour Manag 21(11):1899–1913
Moriasi DN, Arnold JG, Van Liew MW, Bingner RL, Harmel RD, Veith TL (2007) Model evaluation guidelines for systematic quantification of accuracy in watershed simulations. Trans ASAE 50(3):885–900
Mukundan R, Radcliffe DE, Risse LM (2010) Spatial resolution of soil data and channel erosion effects on SWAT model predictions of flow and sediment. J Soil Water Conserv 65(2):92–104
Nash JE, Sutcliffe JV (1970) River flow forecasting through conceptual model. J Hydrol 10(3):282–290
Ouyang W, Skidmore AK, Hao FH, Wang TJ (2010) Soil erosion dynamics response to landscape pattern. Sci Total Enviro 408:1358–1366
Richardson CW, Bucks DA, Sadler EJ (2008) The conservation effects assessment project benchmark watersheds: synthesis of preliminary findings. J Soil Water Conserv 63(6):590–604
Saghafian B, Sima S, Sadeghi S, Jeirani F (2012) Application of unit response approach for spatial prioritization of runoff and sediment sources. Agr Water Manage 109:36–45
Setegn SG, Dargahi B, Srinivasan R, Melesse AM (2010) Modeling of sediment yield from Anjeni-gauged watershed, Ethiopia using SWAT model. J Am Water Resour Assoc 46(3):514–526
Talebizadeh M, Morid S, Ayyoubzadeh SA, Ghasemzadeh M (2010) Uncertainty analysis in sediment load modeling using ANN and SWAT model. Water Resour Manag 24(9):1747–1761
Williams JR (1980) SPNM, a model for predicting sediment, phosphorus, and nitrogen yield from agricultural basins. Water Resour Bull 16(5):842–848
Williams JR, Berndt HD (1977) Sediment yield prediction based on watershed hydrology. Trans ASAE 20(6):1100–1104
Wischmeier WH, Smith DD (1978) Predicting rainfall erosion losses: a guide to conservation planning. Agriculture Handbook 282, USDA-ARS.
Woznicki SA, Nejadhashemi AP (2013) Spatial and temporal variabilities of sediment delivery ratio. Water Resour Manag 27(7):2483–2499
Yang W, Rousseau A, Boxall P (2007) An integrated economic-hydrologic modeling framework for the watershed evaluation of beneficial management practices. J Soil Water Conserv 62(6):423–432
Acknowledgments
This paper is supported by the Canadian AAFC WEBs project and SSHRC. We would like to thank David Kiely, Brook Harker, Jim Yarotski, and Terrie Hoppe of AAFC for administrative support. We also thank Drs. Don Flaten and David Lobb of University of Manitoba for providing their advice. Finally, we would like to thank Bill Turner, Don Cruikshank, and Kelvin Hildebrandt of Deerwood Soil and Water Management Association for their excellent support on field work and data collection.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, Y., Yang, W., Yu, Z. et al. Estimating Sediment Yield from Upland and Channel Erosion at A Watershed Scale Using SWAT. Water Resour Manage 29, 1399–1412 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0729-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0729-5