Skip to content

Adding Observation Data

All data observation data should be prepared in the format of Comma Separated Values (CSV). Verify that you file is a csv by opening it in a text editor such as notepad. This is because sometimes, Microsoft Excel saves them with semicolon (;) or tab character (recognised by a space) as the separator instead of a comma.

Preparing Observation Data

The first row of your observations is not read by SWAT+ Toolbox and it is reserved for title. Your observation data should have two columns:

  • Date Column: This should be formated with forward slash separators and year at the end. Acceptable formats are (a) dd/mm/yyyy, (b) mm/dd/yyyy and you are free to use leading zeros such as '01' for '1' if you like.
  • Value Column: This column should be a number with dot (point) as the decimal symbol (if your system uses comma for this - such as the French, swap them in system settings through control pannel).

Daily Data

Daily data should have consecutive dates in accending order in the 'Date' Column and their coresponding values in the value column.

Monthly, and Yearly Data

  • Important !: Monthly data should have a constant value in the day part of the date. Thus, you could have 01/11/1998, 01/12/1998, 01/01/1999, 01/02/1999, etc. Or instead of '01' as a constant, you could use 15 like so: 15/11/1998, 15/12/1998, 15/01/1999, 15/02/1999. The key is to keep the day portion constant.
  • Yearly data also follows the same idea only that instead of only keeping the day portion constant, you also keep the month portion constant.

Subdaily Flows (Special Case)

  • [Description coming soon]

Missing Data

Missing values should be indicated with -99 (or -999 or -9999). There is no need to skip dates in your observation file, if you do not have the data. Consider the example beloc showing how the data can be formated in a csv.

Adding Missing Data

Adding to Project

Visualising Observation Data