Kiver Quctity Melactcu," List of figures Fig. 1.1. The nitrogen cycle 1 16 Fig. 21 Fig. 2.2 Fig. 23. Fig. 24 Fig. 25 Fig. 26 Fig. 2.7. Mass balance at a junction (a) and in a rver sireich (b) 132 Fig. 28. Water fow velocties: top view (a); length section (b), and cross section (0) / 34 Fig. 2.9. A tracer experiment / 35 Fig. 2.10. Tracer concentration versus distance / 38 Fig, 2.11. Tracer concentration versus time / 38 et catchment of exercise 2.1. / 44 mulation of conservative transport / Mass balance applied to a river segment / 52 Fig. 3.3. The Michaelis-Menton or Monod reaction rate equation / 52 Fig. 9.4. Simulation of nonconservative transport / 62 Fig. 3.5. Simulation of a pollutant accident / 67 Fig. 3.6. Simulation of DO and BOD | 71 Fig. 4.1. Numerical approximation of derivatives / 78 Fig. 4.2. Simulation of algae, nutrients and DO / 80-81 Fig. 4:3. Simulation with the finite difference model | 87 Fig. 4.4, AS in QUALZE Fig. 4.5, 94 Fig. 5.1, Probability density function / 101 10 1. Introduction 1.1. Scope This course is intended for all persons, who ar it who lack the general knowledge about modeling techni- ‘ques and principles, as for instance * scientists, who know everything about the physical, chemical and biochemical phenomena occurring in a river system, but are unfamiliar with medeling equations, solution techniques, predictions, etc.; ., who are confronted with reports of water quality modeling studies and who need to understand the basic terminology and assumptions in order to make c: the point that ther pro 19, and before field investigators or even amateurs, who observe the conditions of the river every day, and would like to understand more cr explain better their observations; and of course the students, who lke to learn all these things, but need to start with a basic introduction. is course will be devoted to the basic principies, assump: modeling. Of course modeling be kept 26, it willbe made nathematicalIntroduction techniques will gradually be introduced into the subject. At all times, the physical meaning of the equi at the end of the chapters in or Model equations are only the begi ‘equation and explain the physical im, be given into ing computer programs inthis field. The reader 1m this that after reading this course, he will be able to develop his own computer programs of use without any further explanation the existing programs. As stated before this course is just duction, after which the reader should consult the more ad vanced pertinent iterature about river water quality modeling. Hopefully, 3 reader will be able to understand better and faster this specialized terature after reading this course as he will be fa minology, basic principles and assumptions Another important subject of madeling is the use of statistical techni ques. Also here, we will keep to @ strict minimum, sufficient to give the adr @ feel for these methods, after which he should turn to pertinent ture. Some simple computer progrems'will be presented for perfor. ming basis statistical calculations. It should be clear that in order to do ail this, in such a way that the unexperienced reader can follow and understand, the presented subjects have fo be largely simplified and con. Gensed, even to such an extend that the experienced mathem: Statistician, water quality expert or model perfections and inaccuracies. However, introduction as this. 1.2. Water quality Betore staring with modeling, it should be stated what water quality is, and to what extend it will be dealt with here. The term quality applies to the physical, chemical and biclogical characte i. environment, both natural and man made. The amounts of these constituents in the water deter- mine its quality. Consequently the quality can be qualified by sampling ‘and measuring the concentrations of the various constituents. ‘amount of dissolved constituents in the water is termed the total dissolved solids (ros) The larger part of this is made up of ions. Cations are postively charged ions. The most commonly found in natural = Especially heavy metals as cadmium, lead, selenium, etc., can be harmiul to aquatic live, as well as to human beings. * “2nd soli minerals. The ability to neutralize is mainly due to the presence of bicarbo surface waters usually exhibit a pH vaiue slighty on the ‘one or two units above.7. Several other anions can be found in minor quantities under naturai conditions, or in larger quantitiesIntroduction it waste products have been dumped in the river. An indirect measure, ment of the total amount of ions present in the water, is the electrical conductance (EC) Norionic constituents are primarily silicon dioxide ($0,) dissolved from silicate minerals, and gases dissolved trom the atmosphere, 2. ox ygen (O,), nitrogen (N,) and carbon dioxice (CO). Esp e Gissolved oxygen (00) is a very important water quality parameter ig essential for the respiration of aquatic life. The maximum ‘xygen that can be dissolved in water is solubility or dissolved oxygen saturation concent decreases with increasing temperature as shown in Table ized by dumped wastes in chemical O*- s, where organic materi is oorganisms. The amounts of jally by such processes, in case cet cigsolved oxygen is avalable, af@ termed respectively (Ne sy oxygen demand (COD) anc the Biological oxygen demand used as indicators for the amounts of respec are present in seams of guid wastes, All chemical anc biochemical processes depend upon temperature. rom plant and animal residues ra By means of 2 biochemical re er molesules are used) acacess. Nitsiieation s temperature, OO temperature Dos. eo) (oi) 0 14.6 5 128 10 113 18 10.4 20 at 28 a3 30 78 36 6s 40 6.4 nia to nitrite ane ‘anaerobic conditions (meaning when there is no the reversed process called denitrifcation can ‘o nitrogen gas. Wastes the ammor ritrate contents. Finally, te-itrogen are taken up by aquatic plants als, and excretion or death lite and when taken up again by plants. CO,. When excessive nutrient enrichment occurs aigae blooming can occur to such an extend, tht all other aquatic inhibited. This phenomena is called eutrophication.r innrcaucaer: Fig. 1.1. The nitrogen cycle uptake eo rainae ST Pas 1aESeE) Table 1.2 shows some typical ve 1 different constituents and properties found in natural and polluted rivers. The amount of dissolved Constituents is expressed by their concentration, which is the mass per volume of water, appropriate units are gim*, but usualy the equal units mgliter or ppm (parts per milion) are used. ing the effects of ic. Such problems can not be solved by mere chemical analysis here that models can have a significant and decisive role. is impossible to explain nappening, Hence, the measurements cor just numeric values, but cue to the compl(reduction applying a model, the different parameters have to be for- bbe necessary to make and parameters, ut a lot of assumeti when calculated results are compared become possible to improve the mode! st if enough measurements are available, a thorough understanding processes might be obtained and this knowledge will enable a comple the observed water quality conditions. However, one should that in reality the processes oc plex and that models are only very simple elementary descriptions of such systems. Nevertheless good modeis willbe able to describe overall trends and average behavior of water quality parameters and processes, + practical ourposes. At the same time, quality sampling program. parameters. Hence, the continuous confrontation ‘model calculations yields a better understanding of te river water quail, ‘which could never have been obiained from the measurements alone. Ju. — The second use of models is extrapolation tis clear thet measurements coniy yield water quality information atthe sampiing locations and atthe sampling times, in pariculer up to the men the measured data fluctuate in a seemingly unprecictabl as in reality often hap- pens, it becomes impossible to say: ‘anythigg significantly about the water Quality at other locations than the sampling stes.and at other times than the sampling times, especially the future time, When a mode! is available that can reproduce the measured data to such an extend that one has a large confidence in the model, t becomes possible to use this model parameters at other locations and times. In dict trends in water quail ing oF deteriorating i because of model imperfect! fegatd to the very complex nature of real world processes, but o a large extend also due to measurement rs, Consequently, one is faced wi e problem to ascertain the problem of extrapoiating the measured times than the ones at which samples considered and the effects ofthese have to be eval a proper choice, Such plans and projects can be very general as for instance imoroving the public awareness of environme’ management and economical development of a particu s for waste dumping in gation water or drinking wate specialists, who can parisons with exis ns, and therefore predictions should aiso include analyses in conctusion, all water. quality investigations have to start with sds models become important tools for ‘om these measurements. At present, 2s and the aterIntreduction 1.4. Computers Mathematical modeling of surface the awakened worldwide int p ‘of computers. Indeed, modeling im- Pies ato matnematea calculations wich can only Be preformed wih fhe aid of a computer. While in the 1960's and 1970's modeling was nly for epecalss, as computers were not accessible to everyo0dy, 1h 20's, with the rtval of the micro computer or personal computer (Po) applications and developments of models have grown rapicy. The pecessary comauier hardware (meaning apparatus) and sofware (mean ing programs) depend upon uses, requirements and expectations A the beginning, only large (in the physical sense) and costly com puters existed and programming had to be done in machine language Instructions, which are understandable by the processing uni puter and can be cared out directly. Of course, at that time program. ing was only for computer specialiss. Afterward s were developed. These are specialized programs th language program instructions that are fo machine language. The fist and stil most widely used com ‘centife modeling is FOATRAN, a computer language which is based on ematical rules and Engish grammar. Many programs that were nally developed sill are avaliable ether on large computers, the so taled mainframe and mini computers, which allow for multi-user applicg tions and complicated and extended programming, oF form for Meant ent of PC's, cofhpulers have become easily everyoody. Most people nowadays get th Introd ion to programming on @ micro computer. Athough the computer 20 technology varies very rapidly, and anything what is modern today can be outdated tornorrow, some standards can be identified. The most sold today is the IaM Pc, and a lot of imitations, software has been there are semi- professional micro comput called game or home comp popular, For all these computers 84S) purpose programming language, eas nonprofessional programmers. Therefore, the programs presented in this text, are made in 84sic. Unfortunately, there exist sm: ences between BASIC languages of different micro computers. ive the listings of the programs in 1st's BASIC, but all ims are avaliable on a separate floppy-disk for either 16M, ATARI MMODORE 64. possible l ive the ideal hardware setup for each user, but {or professional appli 10 beyond the scope af this 600k, the 1sM-Pc or compat recommended. 'At present, a basic professional hardware setup should include follow ing items: ‘= MC or compatible with 640 K memory, one floppy-cisk drive and one hard-disk drive of 20 MB: ‘= monochrome monitor (computer display unit) near-letter-quaity dot-matrix printer with graphics capabilty. Useful options are: = graphics plotter + hard-disk backup system, The estimated cost for these is minimum USS 2500 for the basic hard: ware and about the same amount for the options; ‘The basic software should include. «operating system (tundamental program for management of the com puter system): + Basic a «» editor (program for easy manipuiation.o! text and data files; the Nor 21Introduction jation of numbersin table form 3 is the most popular at 1+ spreadsheet (program f data mani preset + FoRTRAN compiler. Useful options are cTyRBOPASCAL is recommended) for advanced menipul manipulation of large amo ‘ams for statistical data anely extended file meni ata) ation; Nor rhe costof softwares very variable from about USS 100 for simple soft ware as BASIC and @ more than USS 500 for advanced software as data bases and statistical packages. 4.5. Outline in this fist chapter the foundations have been made ur goal, giving the elements for a basic understanding of river wale? quality modeling, thas explained. Elementary water quality parameters and properties were discussed and also the necessary comput identified, The temainder is devoted 0 river water quality modeling Hydraulics, Water Quaity Modeling, Numerical ical Techniques. parameters for proper water quali mode ‘constituents in river water are SuD- Ieenoverent along wih ne river water. River Mycrauics 8 ‘corn raed gaence, butt wil nat be necessary to explain ta ‘While extreme 4 phenomena as droughts and floods are impor wan study objects in river hydraulics, such processes 2 bee ignored ariver water quaity modeling. indeed, te time Seale of river quality in 22 sons is usually very large: the basic question being how ty change in the course of years and decades. Hence, hydraulic characteristics in water quality srodels, Hence, in chapter 2 oly the average rivet fow and wat I be discussed. Also a very special process, dispersicr ‘pecause it's of importance in river solute transport. The tnapter wil end with an introduction into tracer metnocs, © these are important tools in assessing wat ng and because the ‘ohysics of tracer flow very much A first compu Chapter 3 is devoted to the formul quality modeling. The mass balance dis equation: cs plored. Computer programs the 80000 system. The chant ing of ecological systems. ‘Chapter 4 deals with numerical techniques, 2, how computer calcula: stone are used for simulation of water quality processes. Based on eS ‘presented for a simple ecological model and ing chemicals in a stream. A large pat of tis chapter wil be Gevoted to @ dlecussion of Me most im- jer qualty model that exists today, the QUALZE Us. Environmental Protection Agency. It will be impossible i is very extensive model, but an insig mean chat be given Tn chapter 5, modeling is considered from the ‘The basic properties wil be explained andi how stat used to 4 of the chapter will be devoted tatimation and uncertainty in simulation mode's. AS puter model will be given for estimating river transpo from tracer experiments, “nally, tis once more stressed that the contents of these Chepis® nity embrace undementa termindogy and properties The readers have 23— Introduction to turn to more pertiner ture in order to acauire a more complete and detailed understanding of the various subjects. 24 2. River hydraulics 2.1. River systems A river systems can be envisaged as a treedke structure wher corresponds to the main river and the branches are the (Fig. 2.1). The location of confluence between two streams’ junction and a portion of a stream between two junctions is a river stretch, Also the portion between if beginning of a stream and the first very variable and a lot of environmental properties and conditions in- terfere. For instance surface runoif depends upon the precipitation, in- terception, evaporation, infiltration capacities ofthe soil, surface storage, . while groundwater drainage is fu Nd elevations, hydraulic conductivities of gro. harge and so on. face area of which the surface runotf and the be assumed to correspond to the topographic divides river catchments. On a regional scale these are fair assumptiRiver hycraulica Fig. 2.1, Example of a river system tributary Border of subcatchment Border of drainage basin junction ‘The amount of water transported in a river system can be very variable intime. For instance in desert regions, rivers can be dry most ofthe time and suddenly change into tast lowing streams. However, for water cuality investigations these shor lived phenomena can be ignored, as the time: scale is usually large, in the order of years. Hence, from now on only time averaged water flow conditions will be considered, In a tiver stretch the amount of water flow is equal to the amount of water that is supplied at the upstream junction and the amounts of face runott and groundwater drainage that are added to the stream along the stretch. Hence, the amount of water flow increases along a stretch from the upward junction to downward junction (unless a stream looses water to the ground as sometimes occurs in rather peculiar situation). Usually itis assumed sases linearly along a stretch. For every stretch, a sub-cetchment can be iden- tified, as the area of which the surface runoff and groundwater drainage is directed to the stretch. The border of such a sub-catchment can also 26 Fig. 2.2, The nydrelogic cycie $ > groundwater flow ww” — HH groundwater discharge catchments. A graphical representation of location along a stream system can be gi yam. Fig. 2.3 shows such a diagram for the situ 1. A same type of diagram can be constructed for the average fe versus the position along the river, as shawn in Fig, 2.4, Stecher diagrams enable a visual represent of river system and the importance of every ti ‘There exist a relation between the area dr and the average amount of flow. Over large time periods, the flow augmentation along a stretch should equal the average, net precipitation in the correspon- ar