Application of Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to suppress wildfire at Bayam Forest, Turkey

OpenAlex İngilizce

Readily available water resources are a key for wildfire suppression.Hydrologic models are a practical and essential tool for understanding the processes of hydrology and managing water resources, but have not been utilized as frequently for wildfire suppression.The goal of the present study was to use the Soil Water Assessment Tools (SWAT) model to determine whether the stream water could be managed sustainably in wildfire suppression at the Bayam Forest District in Kastamonu Province, Turkey.As an input file, the SWAT model used soils, land-uses, weather data and morphology of watershed based on the Digital Elevation Model (DEM).The model was applied for period 2001-2013 in order to predict the water budget of the study area and major streams within the studied district.T h e a n a l y s i s o f t h e hydrologic water budget indicated that 70% (573.8 mm) of t h e a n n u a l precipitation (822 mm) was lost as evapotranspiration in the basin, whereas 19%, 34% and 47% of the remaining total water yield (234.6 mm) contributed to streams via surface runoff, groundwater flow and lateral flow, respectively.Overall, the result of S W A T m o d e l indicated to a certain degree promising f i n d i n g s o n t h e availability of stream water and optimal placement of water reservoir for the use of wildfire suppression.