A Decision Support System based on the SWAT model for the Sardinian Water Authorities
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Data
2005
Autori
Lorrai, Eva Barbara
Cau, Pierluigi
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Abstract
Sardinian Regional Authorities, such as Assessorato della Difesa dell’Ambiente, have the demanding problem of water management and protection. Targeted to their specific needs they use alternative applications and models for their specific tasks. Black box models, in the past, have been the most commonly used approach to describe the hydrological cycle. Despite their wide use, these models have shown severe limitations to take into account land use and climate changes. Physically based models can make better prediction when different combination of soil and land use, within the basin, have a significant effect on the hydrological cycle. The variety and complexity of alternative environmental problems found in the island, which vary from the impact of the agro-zootechnical to the industrial compartment, have suggested that empirical models are less suitable to predict the environmental dynamics at the catchment’s scale. Regional Authorities enact Regional Directives to enforce different European Directives, and no absolute limits can be drawn to separate their alternative field of application. The Piano di Tutela delle Acque Regional Directives aim to enforce water policy in terms of definition on where and how water resources must be used and what water protection actions need to be taken to improve water quality of rivers, lagoons, groundwater, lakes etc.. In this context, the hydrological physically based SWAT model has been chosen and applied to estimate both the water balance of the main catchments of the island and the impact of land management practices on downstream water bodies. The performance of the model has been evaluated on several stream flow monitoring gages against registered data.
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Keywords
soil and water assesment tool (SWAT) , hydrological cycle , water policy , Sardinia