APEX has components for routing water, sediment, nutrients, and pesticides across complex landscapes and channel systems to the watershed outlet as well as groundwater and reservoir components. A watershed can be subdivided as much as necessary to assure that each subarea is relatively homogeneous in terms of soil, land use, management, and weather. APEX was constructed to evaluate various land management strategies considering sustainability, erosion (wind, sheet, and channel), economics, water supply and quality, soil quality, plant competition, weather, and pests.
APEX can perform long-term continuous simulations for modeling the impacts of different nutrient management practices, tillage operations, conservation practices, alternative cropping systems, and other management practices on surface runoff and losses of sediment, nutrients, and other pollutant indicators.