SWAT-GL: A new glacier routine for the hydrological model SWAT

Abstract

The hydrological model Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is widely used in water resources management worldwide. It is also used to simulate catchment hydrology in high-mountainous regions where glaciers play an important role. However, SWAT considers glaciers in a simplistic way. Although some efforts were done to overcome this limitation, there is no official version available that considers glaciers adequately. This strongly impairs its applicability in glacierized catchments. In this technical note, we propose a novel version of the traditional SWAT, called SWAT-GL, which introduces (1) a mass balance module and (2) a glacier evolution routine to represent dynamic glacier changes. Mass balance calculations are based on a conceptual degree-day approach, similar to the snow routine implemented in SWAT. Glacier evolution is realized using the delta-h (∆h) parameterization, which requires a minimum of data and is thus suitable in data-scarce regions. The approach allows users to simulate spatially distributed glacier changes. Annual mass balance changes are translated to distributed ice thickness changes depending on the glacier elevation. We demonstrate how SWAT-GL is technically integrated into SWAT and how glaciers are merged with the existing spatial units. Model code and test data are freely accessible to promote further model development efforts and a wide application. Ultimately, SWAT-GL aims to make SWAT easily applicable in glacierized catchments without the need of additional tools.