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ARS Home » Plains Area » Temple, Texas » Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #320523
Title: An improved representation of vegetative filter strips in SWAT

Author
item CIBIN, RAJ - Purdue University
item CHAUBEY, INDRAJEET - Purdue University
item HELMERS, MATT - Iowa State University
item SUDHEER, K - Indian Institute Of Technology Madras
item White, Michael
item Arnold, Jeffrey

Submitted to: American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/1/2018
Publication Date: 5/1/2018
Citation: Cibin, R., Chaubey, I., Helmers, M., Sudheer, K.P., White, M.J., Arnold, J.G. 2018. An improved representation of vegetative filter strips in SWAT. Transactions of the ASABE. 61(3):1017-1024. https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.12661.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.12661

Interpretive Summary: Vegetative Filter Strips (VFS) are a common and effective conservation practice. VFS can also be harvested for biofuel production, but the potential environmental effects of this are not fully studies. In this research the VFS model within the SWAT model is improved to facilitate VFS-biofuel research and assessment. These routines were successfully validated using measured field observations.

Technical Abstract: Vegetative Filter Strips (VFS) are popular conservation practices installed at the edge of agricultural fields to reduce losses of pollutants from agricultural areas into receiving waterbodies. Due to recent interest in utilizing VFS areas for biomass production to meet bioenergy production goals, there is a need to evaluate biomass production potential for various perennial grasses along with water quality benefits in VFS areas. This study is aimed to improve enhance the VFS representation in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to improve hydrologic process representation and quantify biomass productivity of VFS area. The proposed framework enables routing of water, sediment and nutrients from source area through the VFS area. Additionally, it makes the infiltrated water and nutrients available for crop uptake in VFS area. The proposed improvements are implemented in SWAT model by modifying input files through Matlab scripts and by changing SWAT filter strip algorithm to enable routing. The developed framework is tested with VFS field studies at central Iowa. The results indicate improved physical representation of VFS in SWAT model.