Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 23–31

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Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment

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Assessing the impacts of flow diversion terraces on stream water and sediment
yields at a watershed level using SWAT model
Qi Yang a,*, Fan-Rui Meng a, Zhengyong Zhao a, Thien Lien Chow b, Glenn Benoy c,
Herb W. Rees b, Charles P.-A. Bourque a
a
Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management at the University of New Brunswick, 28 Dineen Drive, Fredericton, NB E3B 6C2, Canada
b
Potato Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 850 Lincoln Road, Fredericton, NB E3B 4Z7, Canada
c
Environment Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Potato Research Centre, 850 Lincoln Road, Fredericton, NB E3B 4Z7, Canada

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: Around the world, soil erosion is a major concern for the sustainability of agricultural systems and a
Received 28 October 2008 threat to the integrity of aquatic ecosystems. Soil conservation Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs)
Received in revised form 26 December 2008 have been widely used to reduce soil loss from cultivated lands and minimize degradation in water
Accepted 15 February 2009
quality. As an effective BMP, flow diversion terraces (FDT) have been widely implemented in Canada and
Available online 27 March 2009
their impacts at field levels have been well documented. The objective of this study was to use the Soil
and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to assess the efficacy of FDT systems on maintaining surface water
Keywords:
quality at the watershed level in the Black Brook Watershed (BBW) in northwestern New Brunswick. The
Sediment yield
SWAT model was calibrated with three years of data (1992–1994) when limited amount of FDT had been
Water quality
Watershed implemented in the watershed. For this period, we found that SWAT performed well in predicting the
Flow diversion terraces (FDT) seasonal variation of water yield (R2 = 0.91) and moderately well for sediment yield (R2 = 0.5). For key
Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) water variables, the SWAT model captured the variation of soluble phosphorous very well (R2 = 0.81).
Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) However, the SWAT model over-predicted the amount of nitrate loading (R2 = 0.02), and poorly
represented the general trend of nitrate. The calibrated model was used to assess seasonal and annual
effects of FDT on water quality for the entire watershed during the period of 1995–2005. The results
indicated that FDT implemented in BBW contributed to the reduction of sediment yield by
4 tonne ha1 yr1 on average, which represented a reduction of 56%. We also found that the FDT
system as a BMP not only reduced the sediment loading at a watershed level, but also reduced water
yield during the summer growing seasons. FDT systems contributed to the reduction of water yield by
158 mm yr1, which represented a reduction of 20%.
ß 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Soil erosion can lead to reduction of soil fertility, loss of
nutrients, and declines of crop yields in farmlands. In a review of
mechanized agricultural systems in which wheat, corn, soybean,
and barley were planted, Bakker et al. (2004, 2005) found that on
average, soil erosion reduced crop productivity by about 4% for
each 10 cm of soil lost. Concerns about soil loss are particularly
important in northwestern New Brunswick that has shallow soils
(Langmaid et al., 1980). The intensity of agricultural activities
largely determines the magnitude of soil and nutrient (N, P and K)
loss to surface water. As a consequence, sediment yields and
leaching of pollutants into surface water can lead to degradation of
important aquatic habitat, affect recreational uses of water, and
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 506 452 6332; fax: +1 506 453 3538.
E-mail address: c2g63@unb.ca (Q. Yang).
introduce toxins into the human food chain (Gitau et al., 2005). For
example, elevated concentrations of NO3-N have been found in
surface waters and groundwater in many agricultural lands
(Forrest and Caux, 1988; Chow et al., 1995; Hubbard and Sheridan,
1989). Nagasaka et al. (2005) also found that the concentration of
suspended sediments was consistently high in streams that
drained from intensively cultivated catchments. In order to restore
and maintain the quality of surface water, it is important to limit
nutrient loading through soil conservation and water protection
practices (Isermann, 1990).
The potato growing region of New Brunswick (NB) has been
identified as one of the regions in Canada most prone to soil erosion
by water (Chow et al., 1999). Average annual soil losses of
17 tonne ha1 yr1 were reported by Saini and Grant (1980) for
continuous potato planted up-and-down slope. Soil erosion rates
found through plot measurements were reported to be from 1.2 to
24.3 tonne ha1 yr1 in the same region (Chow et al., 1990).
Climatic conditions (especially intensive thunderstorms), shallow

0167-8809/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.agee.2009.02.012
24 Q. Yang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 23–31
soils, and rolling topography coupled with cultural practices
including up-and-down slope cultivation have been identified as
the main reasons for this level of soil erosions (Chow et al., 1990).
Black Brook Watershed (BBW), a typical agricultural watershed
within the so-called potato belt of NB, has been established as a
national benchmark watershed managed by Agriculture and Agri-
Food Canada (AAFC). Land-use, soil, stream water quality and
weather have been monitored since 1992.
Soil conservation Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) have
been implemented in order to prevent soil erosion and reduce the
movement of nutrients and pesticides from agricultural lands to
water courses. Considerable effort at national and provincial levels
of government has been devoted to the development and
evaluation of BMPs.
As one of the major BMPs in BBW, the flow diversion terraces
(FDT) system has been implemented on more than 50% of
cultivated lands in the watershed. A typical FDT system consists
of earth embankments with grassed channels constructed across
the field slope (NRCS, 2002). In FDT protected lands, long slopes are
reduced into shorter segments with spacing suitable for erosion
control and farming. Combined with contour tillage, FDT can
reduce sheet and rill erosion of cultivated lands, reduce sediment
delivery by deposition, and trap much of the sediment eroded from
areas between the terraces. The deposited sediment thus remains
on the field and can be redistributed over portions of the field as
needed (Foster and Highfill, 1983). The FDT systems also increase
the surface water retention via storage of precipitation or snow
melt water, and increase the soil water availability due to the
infiltration of water stored in the frontal channel of terraces (Baryla
and Pierzgalski, 2008).
The FDT systems have been shown to be effective for the
conservation of soil through field experiments (Chow et al., 1999;
Al Ali et al., 2008). Benchmarking or paired watersheds, upstream
and downstream monitoring, and edge-of-field testing can help
determine the efficiency of the FDT. However, the impact of FDT on
surface water quality at a watershed level is affected by many
factors, such as year to year variations of land use and climate,
and geological and topographic differences within the watersheds.
The interaction between these factors is complex and varies
spatially and temporally. In BBW, FDT implementations have been
Fig. 1. Research site: Black Brook Watershed.
staggered over a period of several years in different sub-basins of
BBW. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the impacts of FDT on
water quality at a watershed level by using integrated hydrological
models.
A number of hydrology models are available for assessing land
use impacts on surface water quality, including the Soil and Water
Assessment Tool (SWAT) and the Agricultural Non-Point Source
pollution model (AGNPs). Among several watershed-scale models,
SWAT has been used successfully to evaluate the environmental
and economic impacts of BMPs, or land use changes, at a variety of
scales (Gassman et al., 2005; Gitau et al., 2004). For instance, SWAT
was used within the Hydrologic Modeling of the United States
Project (HUMUS) to conduct a national-scale analysis of the effect
of management scenarios on water quantity and quality (Jayak-
rishnan et al., 2005; Gassman et al., 2005). SWAT results indicated
that implementation of improved tillage practices could reduce
sediment yields by almost 20% in the Rock River in Wisconsin
(Kirsch et al., 2002). Vache et al. (2002) analyzed BMPs in SWAT for
Walnut Creek and a second Iowa watershed indicated that large
sediment reductions could be obtained, depending on the choice of
BMP. In this research, SWAT was selected to assess the efficacy of
FDT systems on surface water quality at a watershed scale.
SWAT has previously been used in New Brunswick (Yang, 1997;
Fowler, 2003). However, none of these studies assessed the
effectiveness of existing BMPs on surface water quality.
The objectives of this research were: (1) to calibrate the SWAT
model for the BBW with limited FDT by comparing monthly
predicted and measured water quality indicators (water yields,
sediment yields, nitrate, and soluble phosphorous) under Maritime
climate and soil conditions and (2) to use a calibrated SWAT model to
assess the effect of FDT on surface water quality at a watershed level.
2. Methodology
2.1. Research site: Black Brook Watershed
The BBW is located in northwestern New Brunswick (Fig. 1),
between 478050 and 478090 N and between 678430 and 678480 W.
Elevation ranges from 170 to 260 m above mean sea level. The total
area of the watershed is approximately 1450 ha. The climate
 Q. Yang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 23–31
Fig. 2. Major soil types (A) and major land use types (B) in the Black Brook Watershed.
associated with the watershed is moderately cool boreal with
approximately 120 frost-free days per year (Langmaid et al., 1980).
Annual rainfall, snowfall, precipitation, and daily temperature
averages are 768.9 mm, 353.5 cm, 1091.5 mm, and 3.2 8C, respec-
tively (Environment Canada, 2004). The climate normal shows that
the monthly average precipitation ranged from a low of 64.6 mm in
February to a high of 111.6 mm in July with a mean value of
91 mm. The period from December to March contributes 80% of the
snowfall, which helps to prevent the soil from eroding (Chow and
Rees, 2006). However, the large amount of snowmelt with rainfall
in spring exceeds the infiltration capacity of the soil and becomes a
potential risk for soil erosion.
Most of the BBW is undulating to gently rolling with slopes of
1–6% in the upper portions and slopes of 4–9% in the central parts.
In the lower portions, slopes are more strongly rolling at 5–16%
(Mellerowicz et al., 1993). There are six mineral soils: Grand Falls,
Holmesville, Interval, Muniac, Siegas and Undine; and one organic
soil: St. Quentin (Fig. 2A). The major land use within the watershed
is agriculture and approximately 1050 ha out of the total area of
1450 ha are devoted to farming. The major crops are potato and
barley (Fig. 2B). Potato is the dominant crop, annually occupying
approximately 50% of the agricultural lands. For the period of
1992–2002, sediment yield from the BBW has been estimated at a
low of 1526 tonne yr1 in 2002 to a high of 8029 tonne yr1 in
1996 and approximately 36% of sediment load occurred during the
month of April (Chow and Rees, 2006).
The major BMP in this watershed is the FDT system. During the
period 1988–2005, the areas under variable grade FDT in the BBW
increased from about 4 to 38% of the total watershed area. In this
research, areas protected by FDT systems were assumed to average
24% of the total watershed area in BBW for the period 1995–2005.
2.2. Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) description
SWAT is a process-based, continuous, watershed-scale, hydro-
logical model which can be used to evaluate land management
practices in large rural watersheds. It is designed to predict
impacts of long-term, point and non-point source pollution on
water quality variables such as sediments, nutrients, and pesticide
loads (Arnold et al., 1994). Based on a digital elevation model
25
(DEM) and stream network, SWAT delineates watersheds into sub-
basins. Sub-basins are further subdivided into hydrologic response
units (HRUs) which are assumed to be spatially uniform in terms of
soil, landuse and topographic characteristics. Flow, sediment, and
nutrient loadings from each HRU in a sub-basin are totaled and the
resulting loads are then routed through channels, ponds, and
reservoirs to the watershed outlet (Arnold et al., 2001; Singh et al.,
2005). SWAT cannot simulate the FDT directly, but it can account
for the effects of FDT by adjusting the support practice factor (P-
factor), which is one of the factors in the Modified Universal Soil
Loss Equation (MUSLE) used in SWAT. By definition, the P-factor is
the ratio of soil loss when using a soil conservation practice to the
corresponding loss without any soil conservation practice (Wisch-
meier and Smith, 1978; Wall et al., 1997).
2.3. SWAT input data
The basic input data included the digital elevation model
(DEM), landuse, soil maps, and climate data for the BBW. The DEM
was interpolated from NB Department of Natural Resource (DNR)
irregular point elevation data provided by Service New Brunswick.
Soil data were obtained from an AAFC detailed soil survey map
(Mellerowicz et al., 1993). The land use types in BBW are
summarized in Table 1. The major crops are potato and barley,
which cover 32% and 23% of the entire watershed area,
respectively. Forest areas account for 22% of the total watershed
area. Climate data SWAT requires include daily precipitation,
maximum and minimum air temperature, solar radiation, wind
speed, and relative humidity.
The AVSWAT extension in ArcView 3.3 was used to delineate
the boundaries of the entire study area and its sub-basins, along
with their drainage channels. The BBW was divided into eight sub-
basins corresponding to eight existing discharge and water quality
monitoring stations. The areas of the individual sub-basins ranged
from 68 to 278 ha in size (Table 2 and Fig. 1). The total area of the
BBW was determined to be 1302 ha, which is smaller than the
recorded 1450 ha, because there was some discrepancy between
the boundary definition by SWAT and the boundary surveyed by
AAFC. Physical characteristics of each sub-basin and channel
attributes are listed in Table 2. With SWAT threshold levels of 5 and
26 Q. Yang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 23–31

Table 1 the P-factor at the sub-basin level was 0.74 (Yang et al., 2008). The
Summary of crop and land use types in Black Brook Watershed.
absence of FDT systems was represented by multiplying the FDT
Land use SWAT code Percentage of watershed P-factor by a contouring farming P-factor of 0.5 for slopes of 3–8%
(P-factor = 0.37; Wischmeier and Smith, 1978). Since the P-factor
Barley BARL 23.1
Canola CANA 0.9 only affects the sediment loadings in SWAT, the infiltration-related
Corn CORN 0.7 parameters which affect the water yield were further altered by
Forest-Deciduous FRSD 8.2 comparing the predicted and measured water yields. These results
Forest-Evergreen FRSE 6.9
were used as the second FDT scenario.
Forest-Mixed FRST 5.1
Lagoon WATR 2.0
In order to assess the impacts of FDT on water quality at a
Other Agriculture-land AGRL 6.1 watershed scale, the absolute reduction (AR) and the percent of
Pasture PAST 2.0 relative reduction (RR) were calculated based on outputs from the
Potato POTA 31.8 scenarios according to the following equations:
Range-Brush RNGB 0.9
Range-Grasses RNGE 1.1 AR ¼ outputs without FDT  outputs with FDT (1)
Red Clover CLVR 3.7
 
Residents URMD 5.3 outputs without FDT  outputs with FDT
Road UTRN 1.7 RR ð%Þ ¼  100 (2)
outputs without FDT
Wetland Forestry WETF 2.0
Winter Rye RYE 0.3

2.6. Model performances

Table 2
Sub-basins of Black Brook Watershed. Model performance was assessed by the coefficient of
determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), and the
Sub-basin number Sub-basin Area Fraction Number
Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient (EN–S; Nash and Sutcliffe, 1970). RMSE
area (ha) of watershed of HRUsa
and EN–S were calculated as:
1 211 0.16 19 vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2 211 0.16 26 u n
u1 X
3 143 0.11 22 RMSE ¼ t ðQ  Q s Þ2 (3)
4 278 0.22 21 n i¼1 o
5 64 0.05 13
6 84 0.06 8 Pn
ðQ  Q s Þ2
7 243 0.19 19 EN-S ¼ 1  P i¼1 o 2
(4)
n
8 68 0.05 14 i¼1 ðQ o  Q o Þ
Whole watershed 1302 1.0 142
a
where Qo and Qs were the observed and simulated values,
HRUs: Hydrologic response units.
respectively, and Q o was the average of observed values.

10% for land use and soil, respectively, a total of 142 HRUs were
defined for the BBW.
2.4. SWAT calibration
SWAT input parameters are physically based and are allowed to
vary within a realistic uncertainty range for calibration (Gassman
et al., 2005). The calibration procedure for this research was
performed manually for the period of 1992–1994. Because there
were limited areas protected by FDT at this time, we assumed that
no FDT systems were implemented on site when running SWAT in
order to calibrate basic climate and hydrological parameters. The
annual total water yield, sediment, and nutrient loadings were
initially compared with measured values in SWAT and further
calibration was based on a monthly time step. Water yields and
loadings of sediments, nitrate, and soluble phosphorous were
calibrated at the outlet of the watershed.
2.5. Simulation and assessment of FDT impacts on water and
sediment yields
After the basic climate and hydrological parameters were
calibrated, SWAT was applied to simulate the impacts of FDT on
water and sediment yields for the period of 1995–2005. Because of
limited data availability, nitrate and soluble phosphorous were not
calibrated further at this step.
First, the calibrated SWAT model was run using the input
dataset of 1995–2005 without modification of any parameters.
Results from this run served as the baseline scenario without FDT.
Second, the P-factor was applied to represent FDT and simulate the
impacts of FDT on abating water and sediment yields. For this
research, by assuming that the FDT interval was uniform at 60 m,
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Model performance before FDT implementation
For the period with limited FDT implementation (1992–1994),
the model slightly under-predicted water yield and over-predicted
sediment yield both annually and monthly (Table 3). The simulated
monthly water and sediment yields were generally in agreement
with measured values (Fig. 3). Simulated peaks in water yield,
associated with the snowmelt period, were generally synchronized
with measured values, indicating success in simulating evapo-
transpiration and snowmelt processes and the potential to
simulate stream discharge in the BBW with SWAT (R2 = 0.91 and
EN–S = 0.88; Table 3).
The model slightly under-predicted sediment yield in early
summer (June–July 1992 and 1994; Fig. 3) and over-predicted in
the fall (October–December, all three years; Fig. 3). One possible
reason for the discrepancy might be the forest riparian buffers in
the watershed, which are difficult to simulate in SWAT because it
does not have hydraulically interconnected HRUs within sub-
basins (Singh et al., 2005) and does not have an appropriate
component for modeling forest growth. Improved simulation of
riparian zones and other conservation practices is needed in SWAT,
to better support watershed-based BMP evaluations (Gassman
et al., 2005).
In addition, there were two obvious discrepancies between
measured and predicted sediment yields. First, predicted
sediment yields peaks in 1992 were not in agreement with
measured values (Fig. 3), but they were well synchronized with
predicted and measured water yield peaks. Measured peaks of
sediment yield, however, were delayed compared with measured
and predicted peaks of water yield. Chow and Rees’ (2006)
 Q. Yang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 23–31 27

Table 3
SWAT results for average monthly water yield, sediment yield, nitrate and soluble phosphorous (R2: the coefficient of determination, RMSE: root mean square error, EN–S:
Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient).

Indicators Before BMP (92–94) After BMP (95–05)

Oa Pa R2 RMSE EN–S Oa Pa R2 RMSE EN–S

Water
mm yr1 747.99 650.48 – 548.17 646.32 –
mm month1 62.33 54.21 0.91 27.42 0.88 45.68 53.86 0.54 30.31 0.32

Sediment
tonne ha1 yr1 4.57 5.24 – 2.94 3.15 –
tonne ha1 month1 0.38 0.44 0.50 0.61 0.29 0.24 0.26 0.95 0.18 0.99

NO3-N
kg ha1 yr1 25.09 47.22 – – –
kg ha1 month1 2.09 3.94 0.02 5.57 5.03 – –

Sol P
kg ha1 yr1 0.35 0.46 – – –
kg ha1 month1 0.03 0.04 0.81 0.04 0.42 – –
a
O: Observed; P: SWAT predicted.

Fig. 3. SWAT model predicted and measured monthly water and sediment yield, and nitrate and soluble phosphorous loading at the outlet of the Black Brook Watershed from
1992 to 1994.

research indicated that the correlation between monthly water
yields and sediment loadings is exceptionally good with a
correlation coefficient of 0.92 for long term variations and over
85% of sediment yield from BBW occurred during the snowmelt
period. As a consequence, there was no reason sediment yield
associated with snowmelt should be delayed. We speculated that
this discrepancy between predicted and measured sediment
yield may have been caused by recording error. Determination of
sediment loadings requires accurate flow rate observations and
concentration measurements, which is challenging, as these vary
in time and space over the measurement cross-section (Abtew
and Powell, 2004).
Second, we noticed that predicted sediment yields during the
snowmelt season in year 1994 were substantially higher than
corresponding measured values. One of the reasons for this may
have been the assumption that no BMP was implemented, when
actually about 12% of the watershed had FDT in place in 1992, with
this percentage increasing to 17% in 1994.
In general, the annual and monthly predicted nitrate and
phosphorous loadings were higher than observed values (Table 3),
and the variations of nitrate loadings were not consistent with
trends observed in the measured values (Fig. 3).
Predicted soluble phosphorous reflected the seasonal variation
well and there was consistent agreement of peak times with
measured values at monthly time-steps (R2 = 0.81, EN–S = 0.42;
Table 3) although the predicted loadings of soluble P were in
general higher than measured values for summer 1992 and fall
1993 (Fig. 3). The results showed that the variation of soluble P was
similar with that of predicted sediment yield, because eroded
sediments are enriched with P compared to the original soil profile,
due to the preferential transport of light and highly P-sorptive fines
compared to coarse-sized particles (Mcdowell et al., 2004).
Therefore, the phosphates are adsorbed on to soil particles and
transported into streams. Also, the mineral fertilizer and manure in
agriculture lands can greatly increase dissolved P losses in
overland flow (Mcdowell et al., 2004).
Calibration coefficients for nitrate loadings were unacceptably
low (R2 = 0.02 and EN–S = 5.03; Table 3). It is likely that forested
riparian buffer zones adjacent to the streams may have played a
major role in reducing N loadings. An amount of nitrate may have
been retained in the forested buffers.
Predicted results for nitrate also exhibited two peaks each
year (Fig. 3). One occurred during spring, possibly associated
with the spring surface runoff generated from snowmelt. During
28 Q. Yang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 23–31

the snowmelt seasons (March–May), the peak of the simulated

nitrate loading was about one month later than the measured
peak. The results indicated that the predicted peak of nitrate
loading occurred after spring runoff and did not coincide with
the timing of fertilizer application. This discrepancy may have
been caused by an error in the simulation of soil temperature by
SWAT. For the snowmelt period, the model predicted soil
temperatures below zero and it predicted that all snowmelt
water was surface runoff due to a lack of infiltration under
frozen ground. When soils thaw, nitrate would be flushed out.
However, due to a thick snow cover, soil temperatures in
Maritime Canada are often close to or above freezing during the
snowmelt season (Chow and Rees, 2006), and infiltration results
in nitrate leaching. This process cannot be simulated by the
SWAT model. Implications to water quality may be profound
because high nitrate loadings during the low-flow period can
lead to high nitrate concentrations in the stream. Under normal
conditions, high nitrate loadings are diluted by concurrent high
stream discharge. SWAT could wrongly forecast high nitrate
concentrations in surface water in regions with large amounts of
snowfall, resulting in relatively high soil temperatures. These
conditions are prevalent in the Maritimes and parts of Quebec,
Canada, but they are not adequately simulated in SWAT.
Another peak of nitrate loading occurred in late summer,
coinciding with the end of the growing season and the onset of
potato harvesting (Fig. 3). High nitrate loadings occur for two
reasons: (1) at the end of the growing season, nutrient uptake by
vegetation stops and (2) residues decompose and release
mineralized nitrogen during harvest. However, the observed
data did not show this peak at the end of the growing season. It is
possible that riparian forests could have played a role in trapping
nitrate lost from upland areas. The N in the riparian forests along
streams in BBW could then be released to the atmosphere
through denitrification or trapped during the course of the
summer and then released following the freshet flooding during
the next spring.
Fig. 4. SWAT model predicted and measured water yield from 1995 to 2005 at the
outlet of the Black Brook Watershed for three scenarios. (A) no flow diversion
3.2. Model performance after FDT implementation terraces were adopted; (B) flow diversion terraces were adopted; (C) under the
assumption that flow diversion terraces increased infiltration as well as reduced
For the baseline scenario with the assumption that no BMPs soil erosion.
were implemented after 1995, SWAT simulations of sediment and
water yield were substantially higher than the measured values
from 1997 to 2005, during both the spring snowmelt and summer annual soil loss with support practices. After further modification
periods (Figs. 4A and 5A). However, the model under-predicted of the infiltration-related parameters, predictions of the final
sediment yields in fall 1996. After FDT systems were taken into model are shown in Figs. 4C and 5C. As shown, both water yield
account (P-factor = 0.37), the model predicted no change for water and sediment yield were in close agreement with measured
yield and reduced sediment yields, which were in agreement with values after the FDT systems were considered. This is also shown
the trends in measured values (Figs. 4B and 5B). These results by presenting the cumulative curves of measured and predicted
indicated that the FDT systems were effective at reducing sediment water and sediment yield in Fig. 6. When FDT was adopted by
loadings into aquatic ecosystems with annual variations in climate changing the P-factor, the predicted water yield was the same as
and landuse in SWAT. In 1996 (Fig. 5), observed high sediment without FDT; although sediment yield was largely reduced. When
yield may have been caused by events or catchment disturbances the impact of FDT on water yield was considered, the cumulative
other than upland sheet or rill erosion. Such disturbances include curves for predicted water and sediment yield were very close to
road and residential constructions, or construction of FDT systems the measured curve.
in agricultural fields. A stabilization period over two to three The R2 for water and sediment yields were 0.54 and 0.95,
years is generally required for the FDT to function properly after respectively; the EN–S values for water and sediment yields were
construction. 0.32 and 0.99, respectively (Table 3). The predicted yields of water
Comparing the simulation results with measured values in and sediment were higher than the measured values for both
Figs. 4 and 5, the FDT system not only effectively reduced annual and monthly averages, perhaps because the impact of the
sediment yield from the uplands and reduced sediment loading to existing riparian forests was not simulated well in the present form
aquatic ecosystems, but also reduced water yield at the same time. of SWAT.
This effect was not anticipated in the SWAT model since only the The FDT systems divided the slope into smaller hydrographic
support practice P-factor was changed. According to the definition units, significantly reducing the amount of runoff, thus affecting
of P-factor, it accounts for the erosion control effectiveness of water circulation on the slope and in the entire basin (Baryla and
support practices (Wischmeier and Smith, 1978), and the change Pierzgalski, 2008). The FDT systems increase the surface water
of the P-factor value will only affect the amount of predicted retention and infiltration of certain amounts of water stored in
 Q. Yang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 23–31 29

Fig. 5. SWAT model predicted and measured sediment yield from 1995 to 2005 at
the outlet of the Black Brook Watershed for three scenarios. (A) no flow diversion
terraces were adopted; (B) flow diversion terraces were adopted by only changing P
factor; (C) under the assumption that flow diversion terraces increased infiltration Fig. 6. Cumulative curves of model predicted and measured water and sediment
as well as reduced soil erosion. yield from 1995 to 2005 for three scenarios. No flow diversion terraces were
adopted (Non_FDT); flow diversion terraces were adopted by only changing P factor
(Prediction 1); under the assumption that flow diversion terraces increased
the frontal channel of the terraces. Water, retained by FDT, infiltration as well as reduced soil erosion (Prediction 2).
infiltrates into the ground resulting in water storage increase at
a given site (Baryla and Pierzgalski, 2008; Chow et al., 1999), and
hence increases available moisture for crop growth. However, to 94.8 mm. The reduction was highest in spring during the
the system may increase leaching of nitrates to groundwater snowmelt period. Relative reduction in water yield ranged from
because the transport of the dissolved nutrients is dependent on 11.2 to 25.2%. Absolute seasonal reduction in sediment yield
the availability of water and infiltration (Duran Zuazo et al., caused by the implementation of FDT ranged from 0.3 to
2004).
The predicted sediment yield was still higher for 2000–2005 Table 4
because the areas covered by FDT were assumed to be 24% of the The reduction by FDT in terms of water and sediment yield at the seasonal and
total watershed, which meant the value for P-factor was fixed annual levels for the period 1995–2005.
for each simulated year. In fact, the FDT implementation was Seasonal meana Annual mean
gradually increased each year from 4% in 1988 to 38% of the total
Fallb Springb Summerb Winterb Predicteda Observedc
watershed area in 2005. Consequently, the P-factor in SWAT
should be altered for each simulated year in order to represent Water yield
the actual change in FDT; a feature currently not addressed in AR (mm)d 32.7 94.8 20.8 9.2 158 256
RR (%)d 17.0 25.2 11.2 18.9 20 32
SWAT.
Sediment yield
3.3. Impacts of FDT on water and sediment yields at the AR (tonne ha1)d 0.7 2.5 0.6 0.3 4 4
RR (%)d 64.1 51.8 71.4 57.1 56 59
watershed scale
a
Calculated based on model predicted results.
b
The reductions of water and sediment yields caused by the FDT Fall: September–November; Spring: March–May; Summer: June–August;
Winter: December–February.
were calculated at the watershed scale based on the outputs of c
Calculated based on measured values and predicted results from the baseline
scenarios with and without FDT. As shown in Table 4, the absolute, scenario.
seasonal reduction of water yield caused by FDT ranged from 9.2 d
AR: Absolute reduction; RR: relative reduction.
30 Q. Yang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 23–31
2.5 tonne ha1, with the maximum reduction occurring during
the spring period. Also as shown in Table 4, we found that the
relative reduction in sediment caused by FDT ranged from 51.8 to
71.4%, which was substantially higher than the reduction in water
yield. Maximum relative reduction in sediment yield occurred in
the summer period.
At the watershed scale, the annual absolute reduction of water
yield caused by FDT was 158 mm yr 1. Annual sediment yield
reduction caused by FDT was 4 tonne ha1 yr1. In relative terms,
annual water yield reduction was 20% and annual sediment yield
reduction was 56%. By using the measured annual water and
sediment yield and the baseline scenario without FDT, ‘‘Observed’’
reductions were calculated. The ‘‘Observed’’ absolute and relative
reductions for water yield were 256 mm yr1 and 32%, both of
which are higher than predicted results. The ‘‘Observed’’ absolute
and relative reduction of sediment yields were 4 tonne ha1 yr1
and 59%, very close to the predicted results.
Based on the predictions, the reductions for both water and
sediment yields were lower than empirical data collected by Chow
et al. (1999), who found that an average reduction of 7 times in
runoff and 20 times in soil loss occurred in an area under potato
production during a three year study of paired drainage basins,
located approximately 20 km from the BBW. However, it is
reasonable that the impact of FDT on water and sediment yields
is greater at the field level than at a watershed scale. Moreover, in our
research, the areas covered by FDT were assumed to be 24% of the
total watershed area for each year from 1995 to 2005. In addition,
only approximately 32% of the land base is used for potatoes.
In addition, the results indicated that the FDT systems may
have a more profound impact on reducing sediment than water
yields; this is consistent with the USDA handbook 537 (Wisch-
meier and Smith, 1978). Previous research has shown that
reductions in offsite sediment by FDT systems with contouring
were estimated to range from 82 to 95%, but annual runoff
reductions at 21 locations throughout the USA, had been
estimated to vary from 9 to 37%.
4. Conclusions
SWAT was calibrated and applied to simulate water and
sediment yields, and nutrient loadings in a watershed in north-
western New Brunswick, Canada. Simulated water and sediment
yields were generally in agreement with the measured data; the
model captured the variation of soluble phosphorous very well.
However, model simulated nitrogen and water soluble phosphor-
ous were generally higher than measured values. It was speculated
that wetland processes in forested riparian zones were responsible
for this discrepancy. It was also identified that the model had
difficulties in simulating nitrogen leaching during the snowmelt
season. We suspected that model simulated ground temperatures
could have been lower than the actual temperatures, which may
have caused 100% of predicted water from snowmelt to flow as
surface runoff rather than being partitioned into surface runoff and
deep percolation. The flushing of nitrogen will be delayed until
soils thaw in the spring.
The calibrated SWAT model was used to estimate the efficacy
of FDT on water and sediment yields for BBW. On an annual
basis, under current level of FDT implementation, the results
indicated that FDT implemented in the BBW contributed to a
20% reduction in water yield and 56% reduction in sediment
yields watershed-wide.
Acknowledgements
The funding for this project was provided by Ducks Unlimited
and the Greencover Canada WEBs program of Agriculture and Agri-
Food Canada. We gratefully appreciate the help of the Eastern
Canada Soil and Water Conservation Centre for providing farmland
information and assistance.
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