Rainfall Runoff Modelling for Identification of Check Dam sites using SWAT

In Sina Catchment, Maharashtra

P.J. Deshpande 1*
1
Ph.D., Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur,
Kanpur, 208016, India

KEY WORDS: SWAT, Sina River, Rainfall Runoff Modelling, ArcSwat, Check Dam.

ABSTRACT:

In the era of sustainable development, the conservation of water resources has becoming inevitable. With the use of recent accurate
models, (especially distributed models), the above activity can be planned efficiently. This paper discusses a case study of rainfall
runoff modelling of Sina River, Maharashtra, India. The tool used is SWAT with GIS platform as ArcGis. The precipitation data
from 1965 to 2005 is used for model setup and the outputs are cross verified with data from 1990 to 2000. The main purpose for
modelling the catchment is to identify the potential locations of check dams, where ground water recharge activity can be carried
out. Out of the total 17 sub-basins, 3 potential sites are identified for above purpose. This model with some improvements can be
used for planning of still smaller water conservation structures in future.

1. LITERATURE REVIEW /OVERVIEW 1.2 Software Tools used in modelling

1.1 Study Area
Sina River, a tributary of Bhima (Bhima is tributary of Krishna
river) is located in Ahmadnagar & Solapur district, in western
Maharashtra. With a total stretch of 180 km, the Sina covers
area of 12550. Km2.The highest point in the catchment is 818
m MSL, with lowest point at 441 m MSL. The observed river
discharge data is taken from river gauging station at Wadakbal,
near the outlet of catchment to Bhima. The river bed is mostly
sandy and rocky at few places. The type of river is intermittent
with most of the flow in monsoon season.
Fig-1 shows the location of study area.
The Soil and Water Assessment Tool, or SWAT model, is a
public domain model developed by a group of scientists from
the USDA-Agricultural Research Service; USDA-Natural
Resources Conservation Service, and Texas A&M University.
It has a variety of outputs besides runoff like sedimentation,
pollutant transport, evapotranspiration, ground water
discharge. And hence, it is widely used in the field of research
& industry. Mainly in the projects related to R-R modelling,
soil erosion, pollution in rivers. The SWAT needs a GIS i.e.
Geographic Information System for its execution as most of the
inputs are given in the form of .tiff i.e. raster data. Also the
output of the tool is visualised though the GIS only. There are
two versions of SWAT one be run over QGIS which is QSWAT,
and the other one which runs over ArcGIS is ArcSWAT.
SWAT is a semi distributed type of model. Semi-Distributed
Parameters assigned to each grid cell, but cells with same
parameters are grouped and hence unlike distributed model,
the computations are not separately carried out for each cell.
This model can obtain better results than purely lumped
models as well as the computations are relatively lower than a
purely distributed model.

1.3 Objectives

The main objective of the paper is to develop a rainfall runoff

model for the Sina catchment using available parameters. The
model formed is used for the identification of potential water
conservation sites in the sub-basins of river Sina. In the
watershed modelling of the river, the main focus will be on the
rainfall and corresponding runoff.
The sub-basins with highest surface runoff are selected as the
sites for water conservation structures like check dams. As a
future scope, these dams are to be designed structurally and
hydraulically.

* Corresponding author
 2. METHODOLOGY Flow accumulation and direction raster are also created in the
process along with the stream vectors and their corresponding
2.1 Pre-processing sub-basins. Above objects depend on the input cell size in the
model i.e. minimum area required for the formation of a single
sub-basin.

Fig-4 Delineated watershed of study area

Fig-2 Flow chart for the SWAT Model

(Image ref- Srinivas J S, IJTRA Vol -3, Issue 4.May 2014)

2.1.1 Watershed Delineation-

Delineation is the process of converting a DEM (Digital
Elevation Model) into watershed with distinct boundary.
SRTM 90 m DEM with UTM 43N co-ordinates, prepared in
GIS was given as input for delineation of the watershed. The
DEM was already clipped by a masking area which enveloped
the watershed from outside. It was made by tentative visual
analysis.
Fig-3 shows the DEM with contours of 30m interval (Red in
colour).

2.1.2 LULC Map

LULC (Land Use Land Cover) is an input or SWAT as the

coeff. Of runoff and SCS-CN no is directly related to LULC.
The LULC is also given in raster format after classifying the
LULC map. LULC raster is created from website of Waterbase
Organisation (www.waterbase.org). This was also in projected
co-ordinates UTM 43N, and clipped according to the study
area catchment .As default LULC classes were used, no need
of changes in database files. LULC for Indian Context
especially can be downloaded from BHUVAN website. (Refer
Fig-5 LULC map of study area).

2.1.3 Soil Map

Similar to LULC map, soil map is also an input for SWAT in

raster format. It can be prepared from FAO (Food &
Agriculture Organization of UN) soil classification or NBSS
(National Bureau of Soil Survey) classification. For this case
study the soil data is taken from FAO website. There are 4
soils types observed with clay (Vc43-3ab-3861) as
predominant type.
This type of soil is observed on the banks of the river along the
course of the river. (Refer Fig-6 Soil map of study area).
 2.1.4 Slope Bands Extraction
As runoff depends also on the ground slope, slope bands are
extracted from the DEM. The no of slope bands is decided by
user. More the slope bands, better are the results but increased
computations. For this case study, slope is divided into 4 bands
as shown in Fig-7.

Fig-7 Slope Bands in study area

Fig-5 LULC map of study area

2.1.5 HRU Creation

SWAT model basically works with HRU as a unit foe

computation. HRU (Hydrological Runoff Unit) is an area
which has the same catchment response all over its area, i.e. it
will have same runoff for the given same amount of rainfall. In
any HRU, there is same slope, same soil and similar LULC,
and because of that, the runoff coeff. i.e. response of the
catchment is that area is same in that entire catchment,
When DEM, LULC, soil map is entered in the SWAT Model,
HRUs are created. Depending upon the threshold set, SWAT
clusters the similar kind of HRUs to reduce the no. of
catchments and simplification of the model. A report in text
format is also generated containing unique HRU no, soil type
and LULC. A report in text format is also generated containing
unique HRU no, soil type and LULC.

Fig-8 HRUs created in study area

Fig-6 Soil map of study area
 3.1 HRU Related Results

For the given inputs and threshold values, there are total 192
HRUs observed. They are grouped in total 17 sub-basins. The
largest sub-basin covers 184401 ha area (14.69 % of total
watershed area), while the smallest is 2524 ha (0.20 %). More
HRU related information is present in
HRULandUseSoilsReport.txt which is an output file
generated from SWAT. That report contains each HRU with its
unique ID, corresponding soil type, LULC, slope, area in
hector, percentage area to the total watershed. All that data is
grouped sub-basin wise.

3.2 Runoff Observations

The SWAT simulation is carried out for the year 1990 to 200,
for which period, the actual measured river discharge data was
available. The simulated discharge data and measured data are
compared. That comparison can be further used for the
calibration of the model, for more accurate results.

3.3 Locating the Check Dams

Check dams must be located at places where the maximum

surface runoff was observed. For this case study, the sub-basin
no 7, 6, 2 are the sub basins with maximum surface runoff
resp. Hence, priority should be given for the outlets of resp.
sub-basins as location of sub-basin, for further detail studies.
2.1.6 Weather Data
Fig-9 Shows the Location of Check Dams
Simulation of atmospheric activities like precipitation,
evapotranspiration is carried out using the input weather data,
Hence, weather data is also one of inputs in SWAT. Weather
data can be obtained either from Indian meteorological
department (IMD), else it can be downloaded from
www.globalweather.tamu.edu as in this case. Weather data
from 1965 to 2005 was given as input. The different
parameters for the input to model include Precipitation,
Relative, Humidity,
Temperature, Solar radiation, Wind speed etc. SWAT generates
few more parameters from input parameters.

2.2 Model Run

Once the above all inputs are given to SWAT model, the model
is ready for run. In that step, the model is simulated for a
particular period of time and the results are observed. In that
stage, the results which are required for the study purpose are
selected for computation, from the list of available output
options. Here, there are some options like system
configuration, period of simulation, warm up period i.e. no of
years to be skipped from results are available in printout
settings. For current case study, model is run for 10 years and
warm up period is set up as 3 years. All the available output
options are requested for computation.

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