A WEPP-Water Quality model for simulating nonpoint source pollutants in nonuniform agricultural hillslopes: Model development and sensitivity

The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model code was modified extensively to support the simulation of nonpoint source (NPS) pollutant sourcing and transport in nonuniform hillslopes based on NPS science from the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). This was accomplished utilizing WEPP's overland flow element (OFE) in place of SWAT's hydrologic response unit (HRU) construct which enabled more physically plausible routing within a hillslope. In addition, several improvements to the NPS code base were implemented. These include: free-source format, modern-Fortran conventions, minor enhancements to NPS model science, and code refactoring. This manuscript documents all model development activities, presents a comparison of relevant WEPP and WEPP-WQ code bases, and performs a local sensitivity analysis of the final model code for the most important input parameters and processes. Sensitivity results indicated that the model performed as expected according to its design and provided important insights for potential subsequent validation studies. •Modified WEPP-WQ model code to support NPS simulations in nonuniform hillslopes.•Documented model science and code changes from original SWAT NPS routines.•Compared code bases for WEPP 2012.8 and all three WEPP-WQ versions.•Performed sensitivity analysis of 35 WEPP-WQ inputs and 13 outputs.•Confirmed WEPP-WQ prediction behavior follows validated model science.