This repository contains SWAT+GL, a modified version of the hydrological model SWAT+ (Soil Water Assessment Tool). SWAT+GL extends the traditional SWAT+ by explicitly considering glacier dynamics. It builds on SWAT-GL, the original initiative to improve the capabilities of the traditional SWAT2012, which can be accessed here.
SWAT+GL was developed to improve the applicability of SWAT+ in high-mountaineous & glaciated basins. Besides, some minor modifications were made to make lapse rates and surface runoff lag spatially distirbuted rather than global parameters. Summarized, it consists of:
- Mass Balance Module
- Glacier Evolution Module
- Extended Snow Module
- Spatially Distributed SURLAG, PLAPS, TLAPS
Mass balance calculations are based on a simple temperature-degree approach, similar as the snow routine of SWAT. Glacier evolution stems from the $\Delta$h-Parameterization (Huss et al. 2010).
The extended snow module contains a collection of snow melt approaches, that could be used alternatively to the default method of SWAT. Examples refer to rain on snow consideration or the incorporation of a radiation term.
In the original SWAT+, important parameters (particularly for mountain regions) such as TLAPS, PLAPS and SURLAG, are global parameters. In SWAT+GL they are incorporated on the HRU level to give users more flexibility.
Further insights about the implemention in SWAT can be received from our recently published Technical Note (Schaffhauser et al. 2024), as well as our application article available in HESS (Schaffhauser et al. 2025).
In case you will use SWAT+GL, please cite as follows:
Schaffhauser, Timo, Ye Tuo, Florentin Hofmeister, Gabriele Chiogna, Jingshui Huang, Fabian Merk and Markus Disse. 2024. “ SWAT-GL: A New Glacier Routine For the Hydrological Model SWAT.” JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association 00 (0): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.13199.
And in case you want to specify our application/evaluation study you can refer to:
Schaffhauser, T., Hofmeister, F., Chiogna, G., Merk, F., Tuo, Y., Machnitzke, J., Alcamo, L., Huang, J., and Disse, M.: Merits and limits of SWAT-GL: application in contrasting glaciated catchments, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 3227–3256, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-3227-2025, 2025.
In case you find bugs & errors, have feedback or face any kind of application issues, please contact Timo Schaffhauser via [email protected].
https://gitlab.com/lshm1/swatpgl
Navigate to /bin to find the executables of the current release.
An example SWAT+GL model is provided in the example folder.