Introduction to SWAT+

Over the past 20 years, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) has become widely used across the globe. Various applications of the model have revealed limitations and identified model development needs. Numerous additions and modifications of the model and its individual components have made the code increasingly difficult to manage and maintain. In response to these issues and in order to face present and future challenges in water resources modeling, the SWAT code has undergone major modifications over the past few years, resulting in SWAT+, a completely restructured version of the model. Even though the basic algorithms used to calculate the processes in the model have not changed, the structure and organization of both the code (object based) and the input files (relational based) have been modified significantly. This is expected to facilitate model maintenance, future code modifications, and foster collaboration with other researchers to integrate new science into SWAT modules. Additionally, SWAT+ provides a more flexible spatial representation of interactions and processes within a watershed.

SWAT was developed by USDA-ARS and Texas A&M scientists.