The impact of calibration strategies on future evapotranspiration projections: a SWAT-T comparison of three hydrological modeling approaches in West Africa

Merk, Fabian; Schaffhauser, Timo; Anwar, Faizan; Rauch, Manuel; Bliefernicht, Jan; Disse, Markus

doi:10.5194/hess-30-4529-2026

Articles | Volume 30, issue 14

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4529-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4529-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 30, issue 14

Research article

|

20 Jul 2026

Research article |

| 20 Jul 2026

The impact of calibration strategies on future evapotranspiration projections: a SWAT-T comparison of three hydrological modeling approaches in West Africa

Fabian Merk, Timo Schaffhauser, Faizan Anwar, Manuel Rauch, Jan Bliefernicht, and Markus Disse

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4529-2026-supplement

Data sets

WFDE5 over land merged with ERA5 over the ocean (W5E5 v2.0) S. Lange et al. https://doi.org/10.48364/ISIMIP.342217

Copernicus Global Land Service: Land Cover 100m: version 3 Globe 2015-2019: Product User Manual M. Buchhorn et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3938963

Copernicus DEM Copernicus https://doi.org/10.5270/ESA-c5d3d65

Short summary

Evapotranspiration is an integral element of the water availability estimation in tropical regions like West Africa. Climate change is projected to impact the water cycle. In this study, we evaluate the importance of AET (actual evapotranspiration) simulation for future climate impact assessments. We highlight differences if AET is or is not integrated in the model calibration. Our work contributes to the reduction of uncertainties in hydrological climate impact studies.