There has been continuous research in the field of hydrology as there is tremendous change in climate and land use happening due to anthropogenic activities for decades now. These human activities are taking

toll on natural habitats and ecosystem as development is speeding day by day. To assess these various impacts, the hydrological modelling can see as a watershed moment, these models are to incorporated to assess the impacts of these practical issues as well as planning, design and management for mitigation in future. The distributed hydrological models i.e., soil and water assessment tool has been in use and become a focus in hydrological studies. This paper analyses the progress in hydrological modelling using SWAT through previous literatures briefly. The research with the help of SWAT model has been carried out to assess number of hydrological phenomenon and through various fields of study. SWAT model has been used in many studies from streamflow studies to land use planning studies with very effective application which can be seen from the reviews that has been studied in this paper. Therefore, this paper mainly focuses on studies by various researchers with the application of Soil and Water Assessment Tool. This review will give insights about role of SWAT in natural resources management and integrated watershed management.

Highlights

• Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), a hydrological model is used around the world for mitigating problems related to natural resources management especially environmental problems such as runoff and sediment yield analysis, land use and climate change impacts and future management etc
• The reviews mentioned below suggests that SWAT model can be used for any climatic condition and with inadequate data availability for different sizes of watersheds.