Soil and Water Assessment Tool at IIASA (SWAT+)

FAST FACTS

• SWAT+ is open source and flexible to link in different aspects of the biosphere. 
• SWAT+ simulates the daily quality and quantity of surface and ground water and predicts the impact of land use, socio-economic developments, and climate change on water resources.  
• SWAT+ is widely used by scientists around the world 
• At  IIASA  SWAT+ is applied at regional and global scales to evaluate the impacts of human activities and climate change on river water quality worldwide
• At IIASA, we improve model processes and can calibrate the model to meet our own analytical needs.  
• SWAT+ is being coupled to existing IIASA models, including, GLOBIOM and Global Hydro-Economic Model and lake models.

Brief Model description 

SWAT+ predicts hydrological processes, crop growth, sediment transport, and nutrient loads.

SWAT+ estimates sediment yield using the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation.

The channel sediment routing considers sediment load entering the channel to either deposit excess sediment or re-entrain sediment through channel erosion.

The model simulates nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) nutrient cycles, tracking multiple inorganic and organic forms of both elements in soil and water.  

At IIASA, SWAT+ is applied at regional and global scales to evaluate the impacts of human activities and climate change on river water quality worldwide.

Using global or regional datasets on climate, soils, land cover, wastewater discharge loads, land use and land management, the SWAT+ model can simulate and predict the water quality (sediments, nutrients – Nitrogen and Phosphorus) of rivers. 

SWAT+  is  being integrated with other biosphere component models, such as those for biodiversity, lake systems, land use, and atmospheric deposition, to facilitate more holistic and interdisciplinary environmental assessments.