Using SWAT-LUD Model to Estimate the Influence of Water Exchange and Shallow Aquifer Denitrification on Water and Nitrate Flux uri icon

abstract

  • Numerous studies have pointed out the importance of groundwater and surface water interaction (SWGW) in a river system. However; those functions have rarely been considered in large scale hydrological models. The SWAT-LUD model has been developed based on the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model; and it integrates a new type of subbasin; which is called subbasin-LU (SL); to represent the floodplain area. New modules representing SWGW exchanges and shallow aquifer denitrification are developed in the SWAT-LUD model. In this study; the SWAT-LUD model was applied to the middle floodplain area of the Garonne catchment in France. The results showed that the SWAT-LUD model could represent the SWGW exchange and shallow aquifer denitrification appropriately. An annual 44.1 107 m3 of water flowed into the river from the study area; but the annual exchanged water volume was 6.4 107 m3; which represented just 1% of the river discharge. A total of 384 tons of N-NO3 (0.023 tha1) was consumed by denitrification in the floodplain shallow aquifer annually. The nitrate concentration (N-NO3) decrease in the channel was 0.12 mgL1; but in the shallow aquifer it reached 11.40 mgL1; 8.05 mgL1; and 5.41 mgL1 in LU1; LU2; and LU3; respectively. Our study reveals that; in the Garonne floodplain; denitrification plays a significant role in the attenuation of nitrate associated with groundwater; but the impacts of denitrification on nitrate associated with river water is much less significant.

published proceedings

  • WATER

author list (cited authors)

  • Sun, X., Bernard-Jannin, L., Grusson, Y., Sauvage, S., Arnold, J., Srinivasan, R., & Perez, J.

complete list of authors

  • Sun, Xiaoling||Sun, Xiaoling||Bernard-Jannin, Leonard||Bernard-Jannin, Leonard||Grusson, Youen||Grusson, Youen||Sauvage, Sabine||Sauvage, Sabine||Arnold, Jeffrey||Arnold, Jeffrey||Srinivasan, Raghavan||Srinivasan, Raghavan||Perez, Jose Miguel Sanchez||Perez, Jose Miguel Sanchez

publisher