Rainfall-runoff modelling for sustainable water resources management: SWAT model review in Australia

Water is considered as a vital resource for survival, development and ecological needs. In a world of increasing water demand, planning for a sustainable system satisfying the demands of present and future without degradation of the ecosystem is a major challenge. Being the driest inhabited continent, Australia is not without this challenge and uncertainty in future water availability in the scenario of climate change is creating more pressure. Hydrological models are a useful tool due to the capability of simulating the past and future scenarios of a water management system to assess the balance between human and environmental demands. The physically based semi-distributed hydrological model Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is such a tool that is capable of simulating a wide range of hydrological processes with different management scenarios. Although the number of SWAT applications in Australia is limited compared to other regions of the world, there are some important and diverse applications, from simple water balance assessments to complex environmental policy and water market evaluation. The review of SWAT applications in Australia revealed that despite several limitations, the model has a promising scope to explain Australia’s hydrology in the context of the sustainability of water resources management.