Application of the SWAT model for nutrient modelling of the Narmada River basin
Abstract
The Narmada River is one of the largest rivers in Western India encompassing a watershed of 92,672 km2. It is one of the most important rivers for water needs of the state of Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. The climate of the basin is humid and tropical but region surrounding this river watershed is predominantly dry and resembles semi-arid conditions. Since the monsoon season (June-September) accounts for 70-90% of annual streamflow in this river, it led to construction of one of the biggest dams in India (Sardar Sarovar Dam with a storage capacity of 9.5 km3) for water storage round the year. Due to construction of this dam, there is significant imbalance in the nutrient transport of essential nutrients (nitrates, nitrites, phosphates and silicates), due to retention by the dam. While there are several studies that model the watershed hydrology and water balance components, there is no study which analyses the transport of nutrients inside the watershed. This study aims at building a semi-distributed hydrological model using Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to model the nutrient transport and distribution inside the basin. Nutrients and discharge data from Central Water Commission (CWC) of India will be used to build this model along with other required input forcings obtained through remotely sensed datasets. The objective of this study is to analyze the spatio-temporal variations in nutrients (nitrates + nitrites, phosphates, and silicates) in post dam construction era (2000 onwards).
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFM.H15E1086K