Abstract
Wetland conservation and restoration contribute to improved watershed functions through providing both water quantity benefits in terms of flood attenuation and water quality benefits such as retention of sediment and nutrients. However, it is important to quantify these environmental benefits for informed decision making. This study uses a “hydrologic equivalent wetland” concept in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool to examine the effects of various wetland restoration scenarios on stream flow and sediment at a watershed scale. The modeling system was applied to the 25,139 ha Broughton’s Creek watershed in western Manitoba in Canada. As a representative prairie watershed, the Broughton’s Creek watershed experienced historic wetland losses from 2,998 ha in 1968 to 2,379 ha in 2005. Modeling results showed that if wetlands in the Broughton’s Creek watershed can be restored to the 1968 level, the peak discharge and average sediment loading can be reduced by 23.4 and 16.9%, respectively at the watershed outlet. Based on wetland and stream drainage areas estimated by the model and empirical nutrient export coefficients, the corresponding water quality benefits in terms of reductions in total phosphorus and nitrogen loadings were estimated at 23.4%. The modeling results are helpful for designing effective watershed restoration strategies in the Broughton’s Creek watershed. The developed methodology can be also applied to other study areas for examining the environmental effects of wetland restoration scenarios.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arnold JG, Allen PM, Bernhardt G (1993) A comprehensive surface-groundwater flow model. J Hydrol 142:47–69
Bingner RL (1996) Runoff simulated from Goodwin Creek watershed using SWAT. Trans ASAE 39(1):85–90
Bourne A, Armstrong N, Jones G (2002) A preliminary estimate of total nitrogen and total phosphorus loading to streams in Manitoba, Canada. Water Quality Management Section. Manitoba Conservation Report No. 2002-04
Chu TW, Shirmohammadi A (2004) Evaluation of the SWAT model’s hydrology component in the Piedmont physiographic region of Maryland. Trans ASAE 47(4):1057–1073
Du B, Arnold JG, Saleh A, Jaynes DB (2005) Development and application of SWAT to landscapes with tiles and potholes. Trans ASAE 48(3):1121–1133
Gassman PW, Reyes MR, Green CH, Arnold JG (2007) The soil and water assessment tool: historical development, applications, and future research directions. Trans ASABE 50(4):1211–1250
Gitau MW, Gburek WJ, Jarrett AR (2002) Estimating best management practice effects on water quality in the Town Brook watershed, New York. In: Proc. Interagency federal modeling meeting Las Vegas, 2:1–12. The United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
Hayashi M, Quinton WL, Pietroniro A, Gibson JJ (2004) Hydrologic functions of wetlands in a discontinuous permafrost basin indicated by isotopic and chemical signatures. J Hydrol 296:81–97
Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1998) HEC-1 flood hydrograph package: User’s manual (computer program manual). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Hydrologic Engineering Center, Davis
Land Resource Unit (1998) Soils and terrain. An introduction to the land resource. Rural Municipality of Blanshard. Information Bulletin 98-15, Brandon Research Centre, Research Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Leavesley GH, Stannard LG (1995) The precipitation-runoff modeling system—PRMS. In: Singh VP (ed) Computer models of watershed hydrology: Water Resources Publications, Highlands Ranch, pp 281–310
Leavesley GH, Markstrom SL, Restrepo PJ, Viger RJ (2002) A modular approach to addressing model design, scale, and parameter estimation issues in distributed hydrological modeling. Hydrol Process 16(2):173–187
Little Saskatchewan River Conservation District (2002) Broughton’s Creek watershed inventory. Oak River, Manitoba
Moriasi DN, Arnold JG, Van Liew MW, Bingner RL, Harmel RD, Veith T (2007) Model evaluation guidelines for systematic quantification of accuracy in watershed simulations. Trans ASABE 50(3):885–900
Motovilov YG, Gottschalk L, England K, Rodhe A (1999) Validation of a distributed hydrological model against spatial observations. Agric and Forest Meteorol 98–99:257–277
Napier TL, McCarter SE, McCarter JR (1995) Willingness of Ohio land owner-operators to participate in a wetlands trading system. J Soil Water Conserv 50(6):648–656
Nash JE, Suttcliffe JV (1970) River flow forecasting through conceptual models: part I. A discussion of principles. J Hydrol 10(3):282–290
National Research Council (1995) Wetlands, characteristics, and boundaries. National Academy Press, Washington
Padmanabhan G, Bengtson ML (2001) Assessing the influence of wetlands on flooding. In: Proc. Wetlands Engineering & River Restoration 2001. Reno, NV
Peterson JR, Hamlett JM (1998) Hydrologic calibration of the SWAT model in a watershed containing fragipan soils. J AWRA 34(3):531–544
Rosenthal WD, Srinivasan R, Arnold JG (1995) Alternative river management using a linked GIS-hydrology model. Trans ASAE 38(3):783–790
Soil Conservation Service (SCS) (1981) Flood hazard analyses: Maple River in cass and ransom counties. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, Washington
Sophocleous MA, Koelliker JK, Govindaraju RS, Birdie T, Ramireddygari SR, Perkins SP (1999) Integrated numerical modeling for basin-wide water management: the case of the Rattlesnake Creek basin in south-central Kansas. J Hydrol 214:179–196
Spruill CA, Workman SR, Taraba JL (2000) Simulation of daily and monthly stream discharge from small watersheds using the SWAT model. Trans ASAE 43(6):1431–1439
Srinivasan R, Arnold JG (1994) Integration of a basin-scale water quality model with GIS. Water Res Bull 30(3):453–462
USBR (1999) Pilot project: wetlands inventory and drained wetlands water storage capacity estimation for the St. Joe-Calio Coulee subbasin of the greater Devils Lake Basin, North Dakota. Bureau of reclamation technical memorandum no. 8260-99-02. Department of Interior, Washington, DC
Van Liew MW, Garbrecht J (2003) Hydrologic simulation of the Little Washita River experimental watershed using SWAT. J AWRA 39(2):413–426
Vazquez-Amábile GG, Engel BA (2005) Use of SWAT to compute groundwater table depth and streamflow in the Muscatatuck River watershed. Trans ASAE 48(3):991–1003
Vining KC (2002) Simulation of streamflow and wetland storage, Starkweather Coulee Subbasin, North Dakota, water years 1981–1998. Water-Resources Investigations Report 02-4113. Department of the Interior and U.S. Geological Survey, Washington DC
Wang X, Melesse AM (2005) Evaluation of the SWAT Model’s snowmelt hydrology in a northwestern Minnesota watershed. Trans ASAE 48(4):1359–1376
Wang X, Melesse AM, Yang W (2006) Influences of potential evapotranspiration estimation methods on SWAT’s hydrologic simulation in a northwestern Minnesota watershed. Trans ASAE 49(6):1755–1771
Wang X, Yang W, Melesse AM (2008) Using hydrologic equivalent wetland concept within SWAT to estimate streamflow in watersheds with numerous wetlands. Trans ASAE 51(1):55–72
Weber A, Fohrer N, Moller D (2001) Long-term land use changes in a mesoscale watershed due to socio-economic factors: effects on landscape structures and functions. Ecol Mod 140:125–140
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Murphy Foundation and SSHRC for providing funding, Dave Dobson, Rick Andrews, Bob Grant, and Greg Bruce of Ducks Unlimited Canada for providing research support. We would also like to thank Marie Puddister of University of Guelph for designing figures.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, W., Wang, X., Liu, Y. et al. Simulated environmental effects of wetland restoration scenarios in a typical Canadian prairie watershed. Wetlands Ecol Manage 18, 269–279 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-009-9168-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-009-9168-0