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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fort Collins, Colorado » Center for Agricultural Resources Research » Water Management and Systems Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #379015
Research Project: Response of Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Watersheds to Changes in Water Availability, Land Use, Management, and Climate

Location: Water Management and Systems Research

Title: Fully distributed versus semi-distributed process simulation of a highly managed watershed with mixed land use and irrigation return flow

Author
item VALIYA-VEETTIL, ANOOP - Colorado State University
item Green, Timothy
item KIPKA, HOLM - Colorado State University
item ARABI, MAZDAK - Colorado State University
item Lighthart, Nathan
item Mankin, Kyle
item CLARY, JANE - Wright Water Engineers

Submitted to: Environmental Modelling & Software
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/13/2021
Publication Date: 3/2/2021
Citation: Valiya-Veettil, A., Green, T.R., Kipka, H., Arabi, M., Lighthart, N.P., Douglas-Mankin, K.R., Clary, J. 2021. Fully distributed versus semi-distributed process simulation of a highly managed watershed with mixed land use and irrigation return flow. Environmental Modelling & Software. 140. Article e105000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105000.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105000

Interpretive Summary: We investigated and compared spatial patterns of water balance components and nitrate transport simulated using the fully distributed AgES (Agricultural Ecosystems Services) and the semi-distributed SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) models in the Big Dry Creek Watershed, an intensively managed mixed agricultural and suburban watershed in semi-arid Colorado, USA. Patterns of water movement across the watershed were analyzed for the period 2010-2018. Result simulated with the two models were drastically different. SWAT predicted extremely low lateral flow in landscape areas with low slopes. AgES produced more realistic estimation of watershed-outlet streamflow, irrigation return flows, and water quality in the interior streams. This study demonstrated the impacts of simulating spatially explicit hydrology and interactions among fields and other areas within a watershed with multiple land uses.

Technical Abstract: Spatially distributed process models represent soil-water-plant-nutrient interactions within a watershed. We investigated and compared spatial patterns of water balance components and nitrate transport simulated using the fully distributed AgES (Agricultural Ecosystems Services) and the semi-distributed SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) models in the Big Dry Creek Watershed, an intensively managed mixed agricultural and suburban watershed in semi-arid Colorado, USA. Patterns of hydrological fluxes across the watershed were analyzed based on the daily model outputs for the period 2012-2018. Hydrological fluxes simulated by the two models were drastically different. SWAT predicted extremely low lateral flow in landscape areas with low slopes. AgES produced more realistic estimation of watershed-outlet streamflow, irrigation return flows, and water quality in the interior stream reaches. This study demonstrated the impacts of simulating spatially explicit hydrology and interactions among fields and other areas within a watershed with multiple land uses.