Application of Arc-SWAT Model for Water Budgeting and Water Resource Planning at the Yeralwadi Catchment of Khatav, India

Every facet of life, including human habitation, economic development, food security, etc., depends on water as a valuable resource. Due to the burgeoning population and rapid urbanization, water availability needs to be simulated and measured using hydrologic models and trustworthy data. To fulfill this aim, the SWAT model was processed in this work. The SWAT model was formulated to estimate the hydrological parameters of Yeralwadi using meteorological data from IMD (India Meteorological Department) for the period 1995-2020. The observed discharge data was collected from the HDUG Nasik group and used in the calibration and validation of the Model. The SWAT model was corrected & validated through the SUFI-II algorithm in SWAT-CUP to get a better result. The model’s sensitivity is checked by using statistical parameters like Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and a coefficient of determination (R2). NSE values were 0.72 and 0.80 in calibration and validation, and R2 were 0.80 & 0.76 in calibration and validation, respectively, indicating the acceptance of the model. Results show that 40.6% of the total yearly precipitation was lost by evapotranspiration. The estimated total discharge from the Yeralwadi catchment was 55.6%, out of which 41.2% was surface runoff and 14.4% was baseflow. The other 17.8% was made up of percolation into confined and unconfined aquifers, which served as soil and groundwater storages. The surface runoff is influenced by Curve number (CnII), SOL_AWC, ESCO, and base flow was influenced by ALPHA-BF and GW_REVAP. This study will be useful to water managers and researchers to develop sustainable water resource management and to alleviate the water scarcity issues in the study basin.