Digital Soil Mapping for Hydrological Modeling by the Example of Experimental Catchments in the South of Primorsky Krai

— A digital soil map on a scale of 1 : 50 000 was created for the Pravaya Sokolovka River basin in the south of the Sikhote-Alin Range, Primorsky krai. The main units of the legend were soil subtypes. An attempt was made to adapt the regional nomenclature of soils to the modern Russian soil classification system and to correlate soil names with the nomenclature of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). The description of each area included information on the conditions of soil formation. It was shown that vertical zoning is clearly manifested in the soil and vegetation cover. Three small catchments with an area of 3.5–7.6 km 2 were chosen as modeling objects. The dynamics of the components of water balance within the catchments were simulated using an open-source SWAT model. Data from published sources, stationary studies, and the observation network of the Russian Hydrometeorological Service were used for the model calibration. Criteria generally accepted in hydrology were used to assess the modeling results. The model reproduced well the flow hydrographs in the average and water-abundant years, but underestimated the peak values of the water discharge during floods caused by intense precipitation by 10–20%. The values of the model parameters and the hydrological characteristics of soils obtained as a result of calibration, and the calculated data on the dynamics of the water balance elements are presented.