SIMULATION OF RUNOFF AND SOIL EROSION IN THE REPRESENTATIVE BASIN OF SUME IN BRAZIL, UTILIZING THE SWAT MODEL

摘要

The semiarid region of Brazil is marked by the scarcity of water resources and irregular rainfall. The erosion of the thin surface soil and removal of the plant nutrients is a serious problem. For an adequate management of the soil and water resources of basins, runoff and erosion modeling would be a very useful tool. In this paper, the application of the SWAT model to the Representative Basin of Sume in the semiarid region of Paraiba is presented, where in, the calibration of the model parameters and the use of the calibrated model in simulation of runoff and erosion are discussed. The model performance was evaluated utilizing the coefficient of determination R~2 and the Nash - Sutcliffe efficiency factor. The model SWAT proved to be quite efficient in simulating the runoff, but due to the lack of data on measured erosion, this aspect could only be evaluated qualitatively.