Grid Based Hydrologic Model Calibration and Execution

The continuous expansion of distributed hydrological models applied on different geographical regions in order to solve and predict water resource problems raised multiple issues related to the model calibration and execution processes. The calibration process was performed on SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) hydrological model that could be used to predict the impact of land management practices on water, sediment and agricultural chemical yields in complex watersheds. This paper presents methods, algorithms, data access issues and human-computer interaction techniques used in developing a Web application for the Grid based SWAT model execution and calibration, called gSWAT. The SWAT model calibration process is time consuming (e.g. in some situations its execution could reach hours or even days in length). The Grid is the platform that integrates the gSWAT application, due to its parallel and distributed characteristics, offering high computation and storage capabilities in response to the calibration process requirements.