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Title: WATERSHED LEVEL BMP EVALUATION WITH SWAT MODEL

Author
item CHU, TZYY - UNIV. OF MARYLAND
item SHIRMOHAMMADI, ADEL - UNIV. OF MARYLAND
item ABBOTT, LINDA - USDA / ORACBA
item Sadeghi, Ali
item MONTAS, HUBERT - UNIV. OF MARYLAND

Submitted to: ASAE Annual International Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/15/2005
Publication Date: 7/18/2005
Citation: Chu, T.W., Shirmohammadi, A., Abbott, L., Sadeghi, A.M., Montas, H. 2005. Watershed level BMP evaluation with swat model [abstract]. American Society of Agricultural Engineers Annual International Meeting. Paper No. 052098.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Best Management Practices (BMPs) are normally designated to protect and improve the water quality. However, their effectiveness in water quality improvement needs to be carefully evaluated before their actual implementation. A continuous time watershed/basin scale and distributed parameter model, SWAT, was applied to a small agricultural watershed with mixed land use in the Piedmont physiographic region of Maryland to evaluate its hydrologic/water quality responses due to the implementation of several ongoing BMPs. The BMPs evaluated in this study include contour planting, contour planting with conservation tillage operation, contour planting with no-till operation, and contour stripcropping with no-till operation. Our preliminary results indicate that the contour planting with conservation tillage operation reduced the 10 year average annual streamflow sediment, nitrate, nitrogen, and soluble phosphorus by 2%, 35%, 34%, and 41%, respectively, as compared to up and downhill planting with conventional tillage operation. The comparison between BMP performances with respect to their impact on hydrology and water quality will be discussed in this paper. In addition, uncertainty in BMP impacts due to variability in input parameter values will be discussed.