A Review of Water Quality Models

Water quality models are important in predict- ing the changes in surface water quality for environmental management. A range of water quality models are wildly used, but every model has its advantages and limitations for specic situations. The aim of this review is to provide a guide to researcher for selecting a suitable water quality model. Eight well known water quality models were selected for this review: SWAT, WASP, QUALs, MIKE 11, HSPF, CE-QUAL-W2, and EFDC. Maintaining water quality and predicting the fate of water pollutants are one of the important tasks of present environmental problems. The best tool for predicting different pollution scenarios are the simulation of mathematical models which can provide a basis and technical support for environmental management. Today, there is a growing interest in network water quality modelling. The water quality issues of interest relate to both dissolved and particulate substances. For dissolved substances the main interest is in residual chlorine and (microbiological) contaminant propagation; for particulate substances it is in sediment leading to discolouration. There is a strong influence of flows and velocities on transport, mixing, production and decay of these substances in the network. This imposes a different approach to demand modeling which is reviewed in this article.