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. 2021 Jun 30;11(1):13574.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-92920-7.

Modelling groundwater quality of the Athabasca River Basin in the subarctic region using a modified SWAT model

Tesfa Worku Meshesha  1 , Junye Wang  2 , Nigus Demelash Melaku  1 , Cynthia N McClain  3   4
Affiliations

Modelling groundwater quality of the Athabasca River Basin in the subarctic region using a modified SWAT model

Tesfa Worku Meshesha et al. Sci Rep. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Groundwater is a vital resource for human welfare. However, due to various factors, groundwater pollution is one of the main environmental concerns. Yet, it is challenging to simulate groundwater quality dynamics due to the insufficient representation of nutrient percolation processes in the soil and Water Assessment Tool model. The objectives of this study were extending the SWAT module to predict groundwater quality. The results proved a linear relationship between observed and calculated groundwater quality with coefficient of determination (R2), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), percent bias (PBIAS) values in the satisfied ranges. While the values of R2, NSE and PBIAS were 0.69, 0.65, and 2.68 during nitrate calibration, they were 0.85, 0.85 and 5.44, respectively during nitrate validation. Whereas the values of R2, NSE and PBIAS were 0.59, 0.37, and - 2.21 during total dissolved solid (TDS) calibration and they were 0.81, 0.80, 7.5 during the validation. The results showed that the nitrate and TDS concentrations in groundwater might change with varying surface water quality. This indicated the requirement for designing adaptive management scenarios. Hence, the extended SWAT model could be a powerful tool for future regional to global scale modelling of nutrient loads and effective surface and groundwater management.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Geographical location of Athabasca River Basin (ARB), Canada. The DEM of the ARB shows the two water quality monitoring stations used for model calibration for this study. The map was generated using GIS & RS (https://www.arcgis.com/index.html).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The conceptual framework demonstrating nitrate occurrence in the groundwater (adopted from Almasri).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of daily observed and simulated groundwater quality parameter (NO3/mg/L) at IOR-KRL-03 (SS) (A) and IOR-KRL-04 (SS) (B) monitoring stations.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Comparison of daily observed and simulated groundwater quality parameter (TDS/mg/L) at IOR-KRL-03 (SS) (A) and IOR-KRL-04 (SS) (B) monitoring stations.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Scatter plot comparison between of daily simulated and observed groundwater quality parameters at IOR-KRL-03 (SS) (A) and IOR-KRL-04 (SS) (B) monitoring stations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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