Revista de Biología Tropical ISSN Impreso: 0034-7744 ISSN electrónico: 2215-2075

OAI: https://www.revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/oai
Application of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT Model) on a small tropical island (Great River Watershed, Jamaica) as a tool in Integrated Watershed and Coastal Zone Management
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Keywords

Soil and Water Assessment Tool
Integrated Coastal Zone and Watershed Management
GIS
Herramienta de Evaluación de Suelo y Agua
zona costera integrada y manejo de cuencas
SIG

How to Cite

Grey, O. P., Webber, D. F. S. G., Setegn, S. G., & Melesse, A. M. (2014). Application of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT Model) on a small tropical island (Great River Watershed, Jamaica) as a tool in Integrated Watershed and Coastal Zone Management. Revista De Biología Tropical, 62(S3), 293–305. https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v62i0.15924

Abstract

The Great River Watershed, located in north-west Jamaica, is critical for development, particularly for housing, tourism, agriculture, and mining. It is a source of sediment and nutrient loading to the coastal environment including the Montego Bay Marine Park. We produced a modeling framework using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and GIS. The calculated model performance statistics for high flow discharge yielded a Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) value of 0.68 and a R2 value of 0.70 suggesting good measured and simulated (calibrated) discharge correlation. Calibration and validation results for streamflow were similar to the observed streamflows. For the dry season the simulated urban landuse scenario predicted an increase in surface runoff in excess of 150%. During the wet season it is predicted to range from 98 to 234% presenting a significant risk of flooding, erosion and other environmental issues. The model should be used for the remaining 25 watersheds in Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean. The models suggests that projected landuse changes will have serious impacts on available water (streamflow), stream health, potable water treatment, flooding and sensitive coastal ecosystems. Rev. Biol. Trop. 62 (Suppl. 3): 293-305. Epub 2014 September 01.

 

https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v62i0.15924
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Fig. 1. Performance of Model under Calibration (A) and Validation (B) modes with influence from monthly rainfall data.

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