Catchment-Scale Modeling Approach for Facilitating Research and Management of Water Quality in Water Resources

Abstract:

Environmental and ecological models can be used to interpret and expand outcomes of the lab experiments, answer what-if questions and predict future development of ecosystems. Developing an integrated modelling system at catchment scales is particularly important, which not only can facilitate research work, but also is a very useful tool for planning and management of water resources related to various emerging environmental issues in the future. Aquatic ecosystems are very complex and predicting change of water quality is also determined by accurate prediction of changes of hydrological, hydraulic and hydrodynamic behaviors in the system. In this study, we introduced an integrated catchment-scale modeling which includes developing hydrological-1D hydraulic models, emission and loading models as well as 3D-hydrodynamic and water quality models. We applied the integrated approach in different case studies, suggesting this modelling system may provide a useful framework for future sound management of water resources.