Advances in Watershed Models and Modeling

Abstract:

The development of watershed models and their applications to real-world problems has evolved significantly since 1960’s. Watershed models can be classified based on what media are included, what processes are dealt with, and what approaches are taken. In term of media, a watershed may include segregated overland regime, river-canal-open channel networks, ponds-reservoirs-small lakes, and subsurface media. It may also include integrated media of all these or a partial set of these as well as man-made control structures. In term of processes, a watershed model may deal with coupled or decoupled hydrological and biogeochemical cycles. These processes include fluid flow, thermal transport, salinity transport, sediment transport, reactive transport, and biota and microbe kinetics. In terms of approaches, either parametric or physics-based approach can be taken. This talk discusses the evolution of watershed models in the past sixty years. The advances of watershed models center around their increasing design capability to foster these segregated or integrated media and coupled or decoupled processes. Widely used models developed by academia, research institutes, government agencies, and private industries will be reviewed in terms of the media and processes included as well as approaches taken. Many types of potential benchmark problems in general can be proposed and will be discussed. This presentation will focus on three benchmark problems of biogeochemical cycles. These three problems, dealing with water quality transport, will be formulated in terms of reactive transport. Simulation results will be illustrated using WASH123D, a watershed model developed and continuously updated by the author and his PhD graduates.

Keywords: Hydrological Cycles, Biogeochemical Cycles, Biota Kinetics, Parametric Approach, Physics-based Approach, Reactive Transport.