The Ticino Valley, in Lombardy region, is a flat area characterized by terraces that the Ticino River has created along its course over time and springs that emerge at the base of the fluvial terrace escarpments. These characteristics make the area unique in the world: water infiltrates into the upper part of the terraces, re-emerges from the springs and is reused to irrigate the lower parts of the area, creating a natural cycle of reuse of water resources, which dates to 15th century. However, from a hydrological point of view the area is quite complex since a network of artificial canals is used for irrigation and no natural water courses exist, except for the Ticino River. _x000D_
The aim of our study is to apply the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to understand the hydrological process dynamics of this unique area. _x000D_
The model divides a watershed into sub-watersheds that in turn are divided in Hydrological Response Units (HRUs). In this study, the subbasins were delineated based on geomorphological units (river terrace levels) and divided into 167 HRUs (Hydrological Response Units). SWAT-CUP software was applied for the calibration of the model parameters, using MODIS evapotranspiration data as observed data. We chose the Sequential Uncertainty Fitting (SUFI) method for parameter fitting, and the Kling-Gupta efficiency (KGE) as objective function to assess the performance of the model._x000D_
First results show that our SWAT setup can simulate the general hydrological dynamics with a good correlation between simulated and observed data, despite the complexity of the area._x000D_
The results of the SWAT calibration and validation show that the model reflects the main dynamics of the water balance in this unique area. Thus, contributes to assess the use of water resources and supports a sustainable management of the water resources, in the context of climate change. _x000D_
Alice BERNINI 1; Michael MAERKER 1,2
1 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e dell’Ambiente, Università degli studi di Pavia, Pavia, Italia; 2 Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Department of Landscape Functioning, Müncheberg, Germany
ID Abstract: 493