Significance of the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT Model (CMADS) of East Asia

The high degree of spatial variability in climate conditions, and a lack of meteorological data for East Asia, present challenges to conducting surface water research in the context of the hydrological cycle. In addition, East Asia is facing pressure from both water resource scarcity and water pollution. The consequences of water pollution have attracted public concern in recent years. The low frequency and difficulty of monitoring water quality present challenges to understanding the continuous spatial distributions of non-point source pollution mechanisms in East Asia. The China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model (CMADS) was developed to provide high-resolution, high-quality meteorological data for use by the scientific community. Applying CMADS can significantly reduce the meteorological input uncertainty and improve the performance of non-point source pollution models, since water resources and non-point source pollution can be more accurately localised. In addition, researchers can make use of high-resolution time series data from CMADS to conduct spatialand temporalscale analyses of meteorological data. This Special Issue, “Application of the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT Model (CMADS) in East Asia”, provides a platform to introduce recent advances in the modelling of water quality and quantity in watersheds using CMADS and hydrological models, and underscores its application to a wide range of topics.