摘要：Hydraulicfracturing (fracking) has been increasing in the eastern part of Ohio for thelast few years leading to the increased stress on water resources, particularlyon the hydrological low flows. Yet, evaluation of the various impacts offracking on stream low flows using appropriate tools is still a challengingissue, even though significant progress has been achieved in recent decades toadvance the scientific tools and techniques for watershed modeling. Whilevarious existing watershed models are capable of addressing water resourceissues, each model is unique and the appropriate selection of model dependsupon several factors. Therefore, the objective of this study are: (i) to reviewthe current state of art for various available watershed models, includingtheir potential capability, in order to conduct a study related to hydraulicfracking and (ii) to present a case study using best selected modelapplication. Our review indicated that the Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT) is one of the most competent models to assess water issues related tothe fracking process at various spatial and temporal scales. The SWAT modelincorporating hydraulic fracking is presented in a series of steps: (i) in thefirst step, the preparation of input data for water use and hydraulic frackingis discussed, including detail calibration and validation of the SWAT model forthis study; (ii) in the second step, a case study is presented to evaluate theimpact of hydraulic fracking with stream low flows by analyzing the currentfracking trend in watershed; (iii) finally, issues and challenges related todata availability and sources of water withdrawal is presented. The SWAT modelwas calibrated and validated both for daily and monthly scales for 9 variouslocations of the watershed, with a monthly Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency varyingfrom 0.49 to 0.88 for calibration and from 0.55 to 0.86 for validation.Analysis indicates that fracking practices have nominal impact on annual flows,with modest impact on seven days lows flows, especially at the localized scale,varying in the range of 5.2 to 10.6%.
