• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.147-155
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• 2008

Because of increased nonpoint source runoff potential at highland agricultural fields of Kangwon province, effective agricultural management practices are required to reduce the inflow of sediment and other nonpoint source pollutants into the water bodies. The watershed-scale model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), model has been used worldwide for developing effective watershed management. However, the SWAT model simulated sediment values are significantly affected by the number of subwatershed delineated. This result indicates that the SWAT estimated watershed characteristics from the watershed delineation process affects the soil erosion and sediment behaviors. However, most SWAT users do not spend time and efforts to analyze variations in sediment estimation due to watershed delineation with various threshold value although topography falsification affecting soil erosion process can be caused with watershed delineation processes. The SWAT model estimates the field slope length of Hydrologic Response Unit (HRU) based on average slope of subwatershed within the watershed. Thus the SWAT ArcView GIS Patch, developed by using the regression relationship between average watershed slope and field slope length, was utilized in this study to compare the simulated sediment from various watershed delineation scenarios. Four watershed delineation scenarios were made with various threshold values (700 ha, 300 ha, 100 ha, and 75 ha) and the SWAT estimated flow and sediment values were compared with and without applying the SWAT ArcView GIS Patch. With the SWAT ArcView GIS Patch applied, the simulated flow values are almost same irrespective of the number of subwatershed delineated while the simulated flow values changes to some extent without the SWAT ArcView GIS Patch applied. However when the SWAT ArcView GIS Patch applied, the simulated sediment values vary 9.7% to 29.8% with four watershed delineation scenarios, while the simulated sediment values vary 0.5% to 126.6% without SWAT ArcView GIS applied. As shown, the SWAT estimated flow and sediment values are not affected by the number of watershed delineation significant compared with the estimated flow and sediment value without applying the SWAT ArcView GIS Patch.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.185-194
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• 2008

There is increased soil erosion potential at highland agricultural crop fields because of its topographic characteristics and site-specific agricultural management practices performed at these areas. The agricultural upland fields are usually located at the sloping areas, resulting in higher soil loss, pesticides, and nutrients in case of torrential rainfall events or typhoon, such as 2002 Rusa and 2003 MaeMi. At the highland agricultural fields, the soil reconditioning have been performed every year to decrease damage by continuous cropping and pests. Also it has been done to increase crop productivity and soil fertility. The increased amounts of soil used for soil reconditioning are increasing over the years, causing significant impacts on water quality at the receiving water bodies. In this study, the field investigation was done to check soil reconditioning status for potato, carrot, and cabbage at the Doam-dam watershed. With these data obtained from the field investigation, the Soil and Water Assesment Tool (SWAT) model was used to simulate the soil loss reduction with environment-friendly and agronomically enough soil reconditioning. The average soil reconditioning depth for potato was 34.3 cm, 48.3 cm for carrot, and 31.2 cm for cabbage at the Doam-dam watershed. These data were used for SWAT model runs. Before the SWAT simulation, the SWAT ArcView GIS Patch, developed by the Kangwon National University, was applied because of proper simulation of soil erosion and sediment yield at the sloping watershed, such as the Doam-dam watershed. With this patch applied, the Coefficient of Determination ($R^2$) value was 0.85 and the Nash-Sutcliffe Model Efficiency (EI) was 0.75 for flow calibration. The $R^2$ value was 0.87 and the EI was 0.85 for flow validation. For sediment simulation, the $R^2$ value was 0.91 and the EI was 0.70, indicating the SWAT model predicts the soil erosion processes and sediment yield at the Doam-dam watershed. With the calibrated and validated SWAT for the Doam-dam watershed, the soil erosion reduction was investigated for potato, carrot, and cabbage. For potato, around 19.3 cm of soil were over applied to the agricultural field, causing 146% of more soil erosion rate, approximately 33.3 cm, causing 146% of more soil erosion for carrot, and approximately 16.2 cm, causing 44% of more soil erosion. The results obtained in this study showed that excessive soil reconditioning are performed at the highland agricultural fields, causing severe muddy water issues and water quality degradation at the Doam-water watershed. The results can be used to develop soil reconditioning standard policy for various crops at the highland agricultural fields, without causing problems agronomically and environmentally.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.690-700
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• 2008

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model users tend to use the readily available input dataset, such as the Ministry of Environment (MOE) land cover data ignoring temporal and spatial changes in land cover. The SWAT model was calibrated and validated with this land cover data. The EI values were 0.79 and 0.85 for streamflow calibration and validation, respectively. The EI were 0.79 and 0.86 for sediment calibration and validation, respectively. With newly prepared landcover dataset for the Doam-dam watershed, the SWAT model better predicts hydrologic and sediment behaviors. The number of HRUs with new land cover data increased by 70.2% compared with that with the MOE land cover, indicating better representation of small-sized agricultural field boundaries. The SWAT estimated annual average sediment yield with the MOE land cover data was 61.8 ton/ha/year for the Doam-dam watershed, while 36.2 ton/ha/year (70.7% difference) of annual sediment yield with new land cover data. Especially the most significant difference in estimated sediment yield was 548.0% for the subwatershed #2. Therefore it is recommended that one needs to carefully validate land cover for the study watershed for accurate hydrologic and sediment simulation with the SWAT model.