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Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences

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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2019) | Viewed by 108938

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Balaji Narasimhan

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Guest Editor

Indian Institute of Technology – Madras, Chennai - 600036, India
Interests: Hydrological Modelling; Remote Sensing; large-scale simulations; climate/landuse change impact studies
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Dr. Paul Wagner

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Guest Editor

Department of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Kiel University, 24118 Kiel, Germany
Interests: hydrologic modeling; impacts of land use change and climate change on water resources; integration of remote sensing and modeling
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Prof. Claire Baffaut

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Guest Editor

USDA-Agricultural Research Service - Cropping and Water Quality Research Unit, USA
Interests: hydrological modeling at plot, field and watershed scale; simulation and evaluation of management practices; impacts of climate change

Dr. Mou Leong Tan

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Guest Editor

GeoInformatic Unit, Geography Section, School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
Interests: climate change impact assessment; hydrological modeling; analysis of hydroclimatic extremes; remote sensing; geographical information system
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Dr. Abeyou W. Worqlul

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Guest Editor

Blackland Research and Extension Center, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Temple, 76502, USA
Interests: Watershed Hydrology; Remote Sensing; Data-scarce Region; Agriculture System Design; APEX Model; Sustainability; Crop Growth Modeling
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Although considerable improvement has been made in hydrologic sciences, and the representation of the processes within the models, this has also led to increased data requirements for the spatial representation of a study area and model parameterization. In the past decade, remote sensing data have become increasingly available to the hydrologic community for developing a representative spatially-distributed model for assessing the impacts of landuse change, and land and water management practices on water resources at the river basin scale. Further, data on hydrologic state variables, such as evapotranspiration from thermal sensors and soil moisture from microwave sensors, are also being explored for calibration and validation of hydrological models, either independently or within a data assimilation framework. Many research challenges are being actively explored, which aim toward calibration of hydrological models for watersheds and river basins taking into account the true spatial variability of observed processes as opposed to lumped calibration of the model parameters at the point of discharge measurements. This Special Issue of Water is envisioned to showcase the state of the art in the adaptation and use of remotely sensed data for hydrologic modelling using SWAT at different scales and climatic regions for model parameterization, calibration, validation and data assimilation. We sincerely hope that these research papers would address the lacuna that exists in the use of remote sensing data with the hydrologic models, methods to overcome them and identify issues that need further research.

Prof. Balaji Narasimhan
Dr. Paul Wagner
Prof. Claire Baffaut
Dr. Mou Leong Tan
Dr. Abeyou Wale Worqlul
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Model Parameterization
Calibration and Validation
Data Assimilation
Large-Scale Modelling
Climate Change Impact
SWAT Model
Remote Sensing

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Published Papers (12 papers)

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17 pages, 4419 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Suitable Land for Surface Irrigation in Ungauged Catchments: Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

by Getenet Nigussie, Mamaru A. Moges, Michael M. Moges and Tammo S. Steenhuis

Water 2019, 11(7), 1465; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11071465 - 15 Jul 2019

Cited by 28 | Viewed by 5729

Abstract

Planning and decision making for new irrigation development projects requires the systematic assessment of irrigable land together with available water resources. The data required are usually not available in developing countries, and therefore a method was developed for quantifying surface water resources and potentially irrigable land in ungauged watersheds in the Upper Blue Nile Basin using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and Multi-Criterion Decision Evaluation (MCDE). The method was tested using the Lah river basin in the Jabitenan district and then applied in the whole area, including ungauged areas. In MCDE, soil type, slope, land use, and river proximity were considered. Onion, Cabbage and Tomato were grown on the identified irrigable areas. The predicted monthly stream discharge agreed well with observed values, with Nash and Sutcliffe efficiencies of 0.87 during calibration and 0.68 for validation. The SWAT model calibrated parameters from the gauged catchment were used to simulate the discharge of the ungauged catchments. The potential irrigable land was determined in Jabitenan woreda and included the Rivers like Birr, Tikurwuha, Gunagun, Leza Lah, Geray, Arara, Debolah, Guysa, and Silala, with an area of 460 km². By evaluating gross irrigation demand of irrigable land with available flow in rivers (both observed and simulated), the actual surface irrigation potential was 47 km². The main limitation for surface irrigation in all districts was the available water and not the land suitable for irrigation. Therefore, the study suggests that in order to irrigate a greater portion of the irrigable land, water should be stored during the monsoon rain phase for use in the last part of the dry phase. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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16 pages, 4404 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Revisiting SWAT as a Saturation-Excess Runoff Model

by Tammo S. Steenhuis, Elliot M. Schneiderman, Rajith Mukundan, Linh Hoang, Mamaru Moges and Emmet M. Owens

Water 2019, 11(7), 1427; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11071427 - 11 Jul 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5690

Abstract

The Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is employed throughout the world to simulate watershed processes. A limitation of this model is that locations of saturation excess overland flow in hilly and mountainous regions with an impermeable layer at shallow depth cannot be simulated realistically. The objective of this research is to overcome this limitation with minor changes in the original SWAT code. The new approach is called SWAT-with-impervious-layers (SWAT-wil). Adaptations consisted of redefining the hillslope length, restricting downward percolation from the root zone, and redefining hydrologic response units (HRUs) such that they are associated with the landscape position. Finally, input parameters were chosen such that overland flow from variable saturated areas (VSAs) corresponds to the variable source interpretation of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) curve number runoff equation. We tested the model for the Town Brook watershed in the Catskill Mountains. The results showed that the discharge calculated with SWAT-wil agreed with observed outflow and results simulated with the original SWAT and SWAT-hillslope (SWAT-HS) models that had a surface aquifer that transferred water between groups of HRUs. The locations of the periodically saturated runoff areas were predicted by SWAT-wil at the right locations. Current users can utilize the SWAT-wil approach for catchments where VSA hydrology predominates. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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18 pages, 4288 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Climate Change Impact on Future Groundwater-Level Behavior Using SWAT Groundwater-Consumption Function in Geum River Basin of South Korea

by Jiwan Lee, Chunggil Jung, Sehoon Kim and Seongjoon Kim

Water 2019, 11(5), 949; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11050949 - 6 May 2019

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 6532

Abstract

This study was to evaluate the groundwater-level behavior in Geum River Basin (9645.5 km²) of South Korea with HadGEM3-RA RCP 4.5 and 8.5 climate change scenarios and future groundwater use data using the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT). Before evaluating future groundwater behavior, the SWAT model was calibrated and validated using the daily inflows and storage of two dams (DCD and YDD) in the basin for 11 years (2005–2015), the daily groundwater-level observation data at five locations (JSJS, OCCS, BEMR, CASS, and BYBY), and the daily inflow and storage of three weir locations (SJW, GJW, and BJW) for three years and five months (August 2012 to December 2015). The Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) and the coefficient of determination (R²) of two dam inflows was 0.55–0.70 and 0.67–0.75. For the inflows of the three weirs, NSE was 0.57–0.77 and R² was 0.62–0.81. The average R² value for the groundwater levels of the five locations ranged from 0.53 to 0.61. After verifying the SWAT for hydrologic components, we evaluated the behavior of future groundwater levels by future climate change scenarios and estimated future ground water use by Korean water vision 2020 based on ground water use monitoring data. The future groundwater-level decreased by −13.0, −5.0, and −9.0 cm at three upstream locations (JSJS, OCCS, and BEMR) among the five groundwater-level observation locations and increased by +3.0 and +1.0 cm at two downstream locations (CASS and BYBY). The future groundwater level was directly affected by the groundwater recharge, which was dependent on the seasonal and spatial precipitations in the basin. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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37 pages, 8999 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing the Impact of Site-Specific BMPs Using a Spatially Explicit, Field-Scale SWAT Model with Edge-of-Field and Tile Hydrology and Water-Quality Data in the Eagle Creek Watershed, Ohio

by Katherine R. Merriman, Prasad Daggupati, Raghavan Srinivasan, Chad Toussant, Amy M. Russell and Brett Hayhurst

Water 2018, 10(10), 1299; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10101299 - 21 Sep 2018

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 6319

Abstract

The Eagle Creek watershed, a small subbasin (125 km²) within the Maumee River Basin, Ohio, was selected as a part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) “Priority Watersheds” program to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) funded through GLRI at the field and watershed scales. The location and quantity of BMPs were obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service National Conservation Planning (NCP) database. A Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was built and calibrated for this predominantly agricultural Eagle Creek watershed, incorporating NCP BMPs and monitoring data at the watershed outlet, an edge-of-field (EOF), and tile monitoring sites. Input air temperature modifications were required to induce simulated tile flow to match monitoring data. Calibration heavily incorporated tile monitoring data to correctly proportion surface and subsurface flow, but calibration statistics were unsatisfactory at the EOF and tile monitoring sites. At the watershed outlet, satisfactory to very good calibration statistics were achieved over a 2-year calibration period, and satisfactory statistics were found in the 2-year validation period. SWAT fixes parameters controlling nutrients primarily at the watershed level; a refinement of these parameters at a smaller-scale could improve field-level calibration. Field-scale modeling results indicate that filter strips (FS) are the most effective single BMPs at reducing dissolved reactive phosphorus, and FS typically decreased sediment and nutrient yields when added to any other BMP or BMP combination. Cover crops were the most effective single, in-field practice by reducing nutrient loads over winter months. Watershed-scale results indicate BMPs can reduce sediment and nutrients, but reductions due to NCP BMPs in the Eagle Creek watershed for all water-quality constituents were less than 10%. Hypothetical scenarios simulated with increased BMP acreages indicate larger investments of the appropriate BMP or BMP combination can decrease watershed level loads. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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17 pages, 3589 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis Weather Data for Watershed Modeling in Upper Awash Basin, Ethiopia

by Mesfin Benti Tolera, Il-Moon Chung and Sun Woo Chang

Water 2018, 10(6), 725; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10060725 - 3 Jun 2018

Cited by 39 | Viewed by 6677

Abstract

Availability of reliable meteorological data for watershed modeling is one of the considerable challenges in the Awash River Basin in Ethiopia. To overcome this challenge, the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) global weather data was evaluated and compared with the limited conventional weather data available in the Upper Awash Basin. The main objective of this study was to search for an optional data source for hydrological modeling, instead of using the limited available data, and for data-scarce areas of the basin. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool model was used to compare the performance of the two weather datasets at simulating monthly streamflow. For calibration, validation, and uncertainty analysis, the sequential uncertainty fitting algorithm was used. The model evaluation statistics showed that the CFSR global weather data performed similarly to the conventional weather data for simulating the observed streamflow at Melka Kunture. At Keleta, where the conventional data is scarce, the CFSR performed better. The CFSR performance at the two sub-basins indicated that it performed better for the large sub-basin, Melka Kunture. Generally, the CFSR weather data are a good addition to the dataset for areas where no reliable weather data exists for hydrological modeling in the basin. The precipitation data of the CFSR are slightly higher than that of the conventional data, which also resulted in a relatively higher water balance components. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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10 pages, 1215 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Use of Decision Tables to Simulate Management in SWAT+

by Jeffrey G. Arnold, Katrin Bieger, Michael J. White, Raghavan Srinivasan, John A. Dunbar and Peter M. Allen

Water 2018, 10(6), 713; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10060713 - 31 May 2018

Cited by 74 | Viewed by 10447

Abstract

Decision tables have been used for many years in data processing and business applications to simulate complex rule sets. Several computer languages have been developed based on rule systems and they are easily programmed in several current languages. Land management and river–reservoir models simulate complex land management operations and reservoir management in highly regulated river systems. Decision tables are a precise yet compact way to model the rule sets and corresponding actions found in these models. In this study, we discuss the suitability of decision tables to simulate management in the river basin scale Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT+) model. Decision tables are developed to simulate automated irrigation and reservoir releases. A simple auto irrigation application of decision tables was developed using plant water stress as a condition for irrigating corn in Texas. Sensitivity of the water stress trigger and irrigation application amounts were shown on soil moisture and corn yields. In addition, the Grapevine Reservoir near Dallas, Texas was used to illustrate the use of decision tables to simulate reservoir releases. The releases were conditioned on reservoir volumes and flood season. The release rules as implemented by the decision table realistically simulated flood releases as evidenced by a daily Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of 0.52 and a percent bias of −1.1%. Using decision tables to simulate management in land, river, and reservoir models was shown to have several advantages over current approaches, including: (1) mature technology with considerable literature and applications; (2) ability to accurately represent complex, real world decision-making; (3) code that is efficient, modular, and easy to maintain; and (4) tables that are easy to maintain, support, and modify. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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27 pages, 10088 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Hydrological Modeling in Data-Scarce Catchments: The Kilombero Floodplain in Tanzania

by Kristian Näschen, Bernd Diekkrüger, Constanze Leemhuis, Stefanie Steinbach, Larisa S. Seregina, Frank Thonfeld and Roderick Van der Linden

Water 2018, 10(5), 599; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10050599 - 4 May 2018

Cited by 47 | Viewed by 9899

Abstract

Deterioration of upland soils, demographic growth, and climate change all lead to an increased utilization of wetlands in East Africa. This considerable pressure on wetland resources results in trade-offs between those resources and their related ecosystem services. Furthermore, relationships between catchment attributes and available wetland water resources are one of the key drivers that might lead to wetland degradation. To investigate the impacts of these developments on catchment-wetland water resources, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was applied to the Kilombero Catchment in Tanzania, which is like many other East African catchments, as it is characterized by overall data scarcity. Due to the lack of recent discharge data, the model was calibrated for the period from 1958–1965 (R² = 0.86, NSE = 0.85, KGE = 0.93) and validated from 1966–1970 (R² = 0.80, NSE = 0.80, KGE = 0.89) with the sequential uncertainty fitting algorithm (SUFI-2) on a daily resolution. Results show the dependency of the wetland on baseflow contribution from the enclosing catchment, especially in dry season. Main contributions with regard to overall water yield arise from the northern mountains and the southeastern highlands, which are characterized by steep slopes and a high share of forest and savanna vegetation, respectively. Simulations of land use change effects, generated with Landsat images from the 1970s up to 2014, show severe shifts in the water balance components on the subcatchment scale due to anthropogenic activities. Sustainable management of the investigated catchment should therefore account for the catchment–wetland interaction concerning water resources, with a special emphasis on groundwater fluxes to ensure future food production as well as the preservation of the wetland ecosystem. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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25 pages, 12262 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing Long-Term Hydrological Impact of Climate Change Using an Ensemble Approach and Comparison with Global Gridded Model-A Case Study on Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed

by Sagar Gautam, Christine Costello, Claire Baffaut, Allen Thompson, Bohumil M. Svoma, Quang A. Phung and Edward J. Sadler

Water 2018, 10(5), 564; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10050564 - 26 Apr 2018

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 8899

Abstract

Potential impacts of climate change on the hydrological components of the Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed were assessed using climate datasets from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 and Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Historical and future ensembles of downscaled precipitation and temperature, and modeled water yield, surface runoff, and evapotranspiration, were compared. Ensemble SWAT results indicate increased springtime precipitation, water yield, surface runoff and a shift in evapotranspiration peak one month earlier in the future. To evaluate the performance of model spatial resolution, gridded surface runoff estimated by Lund–Potsdam–Jena managed Land (LPJmL) and Jena Diversity-Dynamic Global Vegetation model (JeDi-DGVM) were compared to SWAT. Long-term comparison shows a 6–8% higher average annual runoff prediction for LPJmL, and a 5–30% lower prediction for JeDi-DGVM, compared to SWAT. Although annual runoff showed little change for LPJmL, monthly runoff projection under-predicted peak runoff and over-predicted low runoff for LPJmL compared to SWAT. The reasons for these differences include differences in spatial resolution of model inputs and mathematical representation of the physical processes. Results indicate benefits of impact assessments at local scales with heterogeneous sets of parameters to adequately represent extreme conditions that are muted in global gridded model studies by spatial averaging over large study domains. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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21 pages, 34013 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Suitable Areas for Home Gardens for Irrigation Potential, Water Availability, and Water-Lifting Technologies

by Tewodros Assefa, Manoj Jha, Manuel Reyes, Raghavan Srinivasan and Abeyou W. Worqlul

Water 2018, 10(4), 495; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10040495 - 17 Apr 2018

Cited by 36 | Viewed by 8746

Abstract

The study was conducted in Lake Tana Basin of Ethiopia to assess potentially irrigable areas for home gardens, water availability, and feasibility of water-lifting technologies. A GIS-based Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) technique was applied to access the potential of surface and groundwater sources for irrigation. The factors affecting irrigation practice were identified and feasibility of water-lifting technologies was evaluated. Pairwise method and expert’s opinion were used to assign weights for each factor. The result showed that about 345,000 ha and 135,000 ha of land were found suitable for irrigation from the surface and groundwater sources, respectively. The rivers could address about 1–1.2% of the irrigable land during dry season without water storage structure whereas groundwater could address about 2.2–2.4% of the irrigable land, both using conventional irrigation techniques. If the seven major dams within the basin were considered, surface water potential would be increased and satisfy about 21% of the irrigable land. If rainwater harvesting techniques were used, about 76% of the basin would be suitable for irrigation. The potential of surface and groundwater was evaluated with respect to water requirements of dominant crops in the region. On the other hand, rope pump and deep well piston hand pump were found with relatively the most (26%) and the least (9%) applicable low-cost water-lifting technologies in the basin. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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22 pages, 9790 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-Objective Validation of SWAT for Sparsely-Gauged West African River Basins—A Remote Sensing Approach

by Thomas Poméon, Bernd Diekkrüger, Anne Springer, Jürgen Kusche and Annette Eicker

Water 2018, 10(4), 451; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10040451 - 9 Apr 2018

Cited by 48 | Viewed by 9024

Abstract

Predicting freshwater resources is a major concern in West Africa, where large parts of the population depend on rain-fed subsistence agriculture. However, a steady decline in the availability of in-situ measurements of climatic and hydrologic variables makes it difficult to simulate water resource availability with hydrological models. In this study, a modeling framework was set up for sparsely-gauged catchments in West Africa using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), whilst largely relying on remote sensing and reanalysis inputs. The model was calibrated using two different strategies and validated using discharge measurements. New in this study is the use of a multi-objective validation conducted to further investigate the performance of the model, where simulated actual evapotranspiration, soil moisture, and total water storage were evaluated using remote sensing data. Results show that the model performs well (R² calibration: 0.52 and 0.51; R² validation: 0.63 and 0.61) and the multi-objective validation reveals good agreement between predictions and observations. The study reveals the potential of using remote sensing data in sparsely-gauged catchments, resulting in good performance and providing data for evaluating water balance components that are not usually validated. The modeling framework presented in this study is the basis for future studies, which will address model response to extreme drought and flood events and further examine the coincidence with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) total water storage retrievals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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19 pages, 4291 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Comparison of SWAT and ANN Models for Daily Runoff Simulation in Different Climatic Zones of Peninsular Spain

by Patricia Jimeno-Sáez, Javier Senent-Aparicio, Julio Pérez-Sánchez and David Pulido-Velazquez

Water 2018, 10(2), 192; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10020192 - 11 Feb 2018

Cited by 144 | Viewed by 9539

Abstract

Streamflow data are of prime importance to water-resources planning and management, and the accuracy of their estimation is very important for decision making. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models have been evaluated and compared to find a method to improve streamflow estimation. For a more complete evaluation, the accuracy and ability of these streamflow estimation models was also established separately based on their performance during different periods of flows using regional flow duration curves (FDCs). Specifically, the FDCs were divided into five sectors: very low, low, medium, high and very high flow. This segmentation of flow allows analysis of the model performance for every important discharge event precisely. In this study, the models were applied in two catchments in Peninsular Spain with contrasting climatic conditions: Atlantic and Mediterranean climates. The results indicate that SWAT and ANNs were generally good tools in daily streamflow modelling. However, SWAT was found to be more successful in relation to better simulation of lower flows, while ANNs were superior at estimating higher flows in all cases. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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Review

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25 pages, 1337 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Review of SWAT Studies in Southeast Asia: Applications, Challenges and Future Directions

by Mou Leong Tan, Philip W. Gassman, Raghavan Srinivasan, Jeffrey G. Arnold and XiaoYing Yang

Water 2019, 11(5), 914; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11050914 - 1 May 2019

Cited by 133 | Viewed by 17961

Abstract

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model is recognized as one of the top hydrological models applied for addressing hydrologic and environmental issues. This is the first review on the SWAT model studies in Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on its applications, current challenges and future research directions. A total of 126 articles were identified since 2006; roughly 50% of these studies were conducted in Vietnam or Thailand. About 16% of the studies were performed at a transnational scale, which included Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam. Model capability assessment, land use, and climate change assessment are the main SWAT applications that have been reported for the region. Most of the SWAT calibration and validation results for these studies were classified as satisfactory to very good results based on widely recognized performance indicators. However, the parameterization, calibration and validation procedures are not well reported in some articles. Availability of reliable data is one of the main problems that SWAT users are confronted with, as these data are either not freely available or restricted from public access in some countries. Hence, future studies should be considered on identification and development of reliable input data for SWAT modeling. SWAT model modification based on the SEA climate, geographical and land use conditions is another research direction to be considered in the future. Moreover, application of SWAT for extreme events simulation requires more attention in this region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrological Modelling and Remote Sensing: Selected Papers from the 2017 and 2018 SWAT International Conferences)

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