Development and application of SWAT-MODFLOW in surface water-groundwater interactions: Current status and future challenges

Abstract

Climate change and human activity have placed substantial pressure on water resources, underscoring the critical importance of understanding the surface water and groundwater interactions (SGIs). This article reviews the development and application of the coupled SWAT-MODFLOW model for characterizing SGIs. It highlights three key developmental stages, drawing on the seminal works of researchers. These models are powerful tools for simulating hydrological processes, nutrient transport, and climate change impacts on water resources. However, uncertainties related to parameterization, input databases, and model structure constrain their predictive accuracy. The integrated SWAT-MODFLOW model enhances integrated water resource simulations, but this comes at the cost of increased complexity; by contrast, standalone SWAT and MODFLOW models optimize analyses of surface water and groundwater systems, respectively. A further strength is its ability to accurately simulate SGIs by accounting for diverse influencing factors, though it requires more extensive input data and incurs higher computational costs than individual standalone models. Accordingly, for practical applications, researchers should select an appropriate model and a reasonable set of influencing factors based on the specific research topic and requirements.