AGILE-GISS AGILE: GIScience Series AGILE-GISS AGILE GIScience Ser. 2700-8150 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/agile-giss-7-37-2026 Validation of SWAT+ Hydrological Model Using Remote Sensing-Based Evapotranspiration Data Mohamed Essmat A. A. https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4225-7065 1 Batlle Morera Amanda 2 Pesquer Lluís https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7396-2468 2 Ninyerola Miquel 3 Fundació Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, E08193, Spain GRUMETS research group. CREAF, Ed.C Campus UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, E08193, Spain GRUMETS research group. Departament de Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal i Ecologia. Edifici C. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain 10 06 2026 7 37 Copyright: © 2026 Essmat A. A. Mohamed et al. 2026 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is available from https://agile-giss.copernicus.org/articles/7/37/2026/agile-giss-7-37-2026.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://agile-giss.copernicus.org/articles/7/37/2026/agile-giss-7-37-2026.pdf

This study evaluates the performance of the SWAT+ (Soil and Water Assessment Tool Plus) model in simulating evapotranspiration (ET) in the Tordera River Basin (Catalonia, Spain), a Mediterranean catchment with semi-arid conditions and complex topography, where accurate ET estimation is essential for sustainable water management.</p> <p>Model simulations (2003&ndash;2022) were validated against satellite-derived ET from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) MOD16A2GF product, providing spatially distributed long-term reference data. Data processing, visualization, and statistical analyses were conducted using GIS and remote sensing tools (MiraMon) and R programming.</p> <p>MODIS-derived ET showed significant spatial and seasonal variability, revealing discrepancies with SWAT+ simulations and supporting improved validation protocols within the AquaINFRA project.