As water evaporates from the soil surface, the water content at the surface drops, creating a gradient in the profile. Water from lower in the profile will move upward in response to the gradient, carrying dissolved nutrients with it. SWAT+ allows nitrate to be transported from the first soil layer defined in the .sol file to the surface top 10 mm of soil with the equation:
Nevap​=0.1∗NO3ly​∗SWly​Esoil,ly′′​​ 3:1.7.1
where Nevap​ is the amount of nitrate moving from the first soil layer to the soil surface zone (kg N/ha), NO3ly​ is the nitrate content of the first soil layer (kg N/ha), Esoil,ly′′​ is the amount of water removed from the first soil layer as a result of evaporation (mm H2​O), and SWly​ is the soil water content of the first soil layer (mm H2​O).