Land Use Update Tool - HELP!

[Amanda Lopez]

I have a SWAT watershed model that is calibrated and validated for hydrology (streamflow) and sediment loads. I would like to use the Land Use Update option in SWAT to simulate land use/cover change that occurs in my watershed due to a wildfire. In my case, my model spans the years 2000 to 2020 with a wildfire occurrence in the year 2018. I would like the SWAT land use / land cover input to change once during the overall model run (aka. in the year 2018 when the wildfire occurs). 

I have tried the methods listed below for creating the files needed to use the Land Use Update all to no avail. Does anyone have suggestions to help me move forward? Thanks in advance!

1. Purdue University LUU Tool https://saraswat-swat.rcac.purdue.edu/ - The webpage maintenance out of date so new users cannot register for account and access the LUU tool. I hit a dead end with trying to track down the web

2. R scripts shared by Nguyen Duy Liem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbrTXXWW3X8 - I encounter writeTxtInOut.R script error in Lines 398-438 pertaining to the lup.dat file. I have reached out to Nguyen Duy Liem and am awaiting a response.  

3. SWAT-LUT software from Dr. Daniel Moriasi at the USDA https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/software/download/?softwareid=SWAT-LUT&modecode=30-70-05-00 - The software immediately and automatically closes when a project database is selected during the "General Input tab > Select SWAT project" step (this is the first step of using the software). I have reached out to the support email addresses and am awaiting a response. 

Amanda Mulcan Lopez, Ph.D. she/her
NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow
Water & Ecosystems Group | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

[Amanda Lopez]

Update - 

I was able to make progress on approach #2, the writeTxtInOut.R script now runs with an error. However, when I try to run the SWAT model with the newly created Land Use Update files, the SWAT application opens and closes immediately and does not run the model. I copied and pasted 1) the SWAT application files (swat_32debug, swat_32rel, swat_64debug, swat_64rel, swat2012) from the SWAT installation folder and 2) the file.cio file from the SWAT model run I previously ran without the Land Use Update tool to the newTxtInOut folder, which contains the files needed to activate the Land Use Update tool. 

Essentially, I'm stuck at the step shown at time stamp 3:13 of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbrTXXWW3X8. 

Any ideas on how to resolve this?

[jorge.rd...@gmail.com]

Hi Amanda, how are you?

I have the same a problem i have three layer of land use (2021,2022 and 2023) i want add this layers to my model, but i have couldn't, i use the point 1 and point 3, but none works,And the same thing happens to me with point 3. The software closes automatically. If you were able to solve this problem or already know how to add these layers and could guide me on how you solved it, I would greatly appreciate it.

[Amanda Lopez]

It has been a long time since I worked on this so I do not remember all the details. But from what I recall-- I did not end up using approach #3. I think someone from Dr. Daniel Moriasi's group at the USDA did contact me to help with troubleshooting approach #3, so you can try reaching out to them. I was part of a NASA ARSET - Assessing the Impacts of Fires on Watershed Health training that details a SWAT example using approach #2, I recommend looking at Part 2 of this series for more information https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/get-involved/training/english/arset-assessing-impacts-fires-watershed-health.