River Water Quality Models: Spatio-Temporal Dissolved

Oxygen Modeling Approach

M.G.A. Jayamanjula Somadasa1), 2), Seo Jin-Ki1) and Joon Ha-Kim1), *

1) Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Gwanju Institute of Scinence and Technology (GIST), Gwangju 500-712, Korea.
2) Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty Of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya 20400, Sri Lanka.
* Corresponding Author: email: joonkim@gist.ac.kr

Abstract
Successful river water quality modeling requires the specification of an appropriate model structure and process formulation. Use of water quality models plays
an important role in river water quality management. From a systems analysis viewpoint the Dissolved Oxygen and Biological Oxygen Demand (DO-BOD)
relationship is a particular example of a general situation which needs to be modeled. This study was conducted to generate a computer model based on one
dimensional convective diffusion equation with cross-sectional area, velocity and dispersion varying with downstream distance. An explicit finite difference
scheme is used to develop the solution algorithm. The developed computer model will be applied to the YS reservoir for model verification and can be used to
predict the dissolve oxygen variation due to the application of organic pollutant in any river system.

Introduction
The area of land that catches water from
precipitation and drains or seeps into a
natural water container such
as marsh, river, lake, estuary,
Stream and groundwater
called a watershed.
Yeong-San watershed is
one of the four largest
watersheds in Korea.
It is encompassed by a vast agricultural area
(1000 Km2). Although it has a short main stream
length (130Km) and slow urbanization, water
quality of YS reservoir is worse relative to the
others.

The number of industries

Yeong-San watershed
in the YS watershed is
over 1000 and they are
mostly machinery, metal,
Yello
chemical and food.
Eas
t
Sea

w
Sea

South Sea

Urbanization

Due to disposing of
wastewaters, industrial,
domestic and agricultural
into rivers there may be
undesirable changes not
only in flora and fauna
but also in the whole
watershed
like
eutrophication.

The majority of these changes are brought into by

the discharge of the organic matter (BOD) causing
a reduction in the concentration of the dissolved
oxygen (DO) which is the dominant parameter
leads for a balance river natural system. This
study is conducted to generate one dimensional
spatio-temporal computer model based on the
numerical approach of the DO-Sag model among
the number of models available related to the
BOD-DO relationship. the unsteady onedimensional convective diffusion equation is used
to derive the longitudinal profile of DO
concentration along the river reach.

Method

Methods include data

mining and monitoring
of the YS watershed,
data
analysis
and
parameter
estimation
and develop a computer
based DO-sag model. In
situ water sampling
experiments
were
conducted
for
110
sampling locations from
the outlet of watershed
(YS embankment) to Dam Yang-dam for
consecutive two days in every week along the

main stream of the watershed. Out of them an

optimized 71 sampling locations were selected
for further studies. The results of in-situ
experiments reveals that water quality indicated
by BOD in YS reservoir was always remained
over class IV (applicable to agricultural water)
or Class V (applicable to industrial water) based
on the river water quality criteria of the
Ministry
of
Environment
in
Korea.
Experimental results show that the BOD
concentration in YS reservoir is almost twice
that of the upper stream of YS reservoir.

Average BOD & DO Variation for May 2005

Mean of BOD
Concentration (mg/L)
Upper stream of YS reservoir 6.04+ 8.07 (n=260)
YS Reservoir

11.66+ 6.87 (n=75)

Comparison of BOD Concentration between YS

reservoir and upper stream of it.

Result
The unsteady one-dimensional convective
diffusion equation which can be used to
derive the longitudinal variation of mass
concentration along the river reach with crosssectional area, velocity and dispersion varying
with distance downstream can be expressed in
the following partial differential equation in
general.
AC
AC

E
UAC S
t
x
x
x

Hence BOD concentration and the DO

concentration for river water quality can be
expressed in the following one-dimensional
form.
AL
AL UAL

(K 1 K 3 )AL ALa
E

t
x
x
x
AD
AD UAD

K 1 AL K 2 AD s AD AB
E

t
x
x
x

Among the available numerical schemes

Explicit Finite Difference Scheme is applied to
solve the developed numerical set of equations.

The developed one dimensional PDEs for BOD

and DO concentrations are solved by using
explicit finite difference scheme for each mesh
point (Sampling Location) to obtain the BOD
and DO concentrations at next time step.
k (K 1 K 3 )
k

AL

E
GR(i)

E
GR(i

1)
i, n
i 1, n
i, n

2
h
1

k (K 1 K 3 ) k U(i 1) U(i)
U(i)

U(i

1)

*
*
1

AL (i)
AL (i 1) k ALa i

h
2
2

AL i,n 1

k K2
k

AD

E(i)

GR
(i)

E(i

1)

GR
(i

1)

i, n
d
d

2
h

k U i1 U i

1
U i U i 1 AD *
*

AD

i, n
i 1, n
k K 2 h
2
2

2 k K1

AL i,n AL i,n1 k K 2 AD s k AB i

2

AD i,n 1

Conclusion
Developing a river water quality model must be based on a logical development of the elements in the model. The model will vary, due to local conditions and
the models purpose. Hence considering all the criteria an extensive water quality model should be developed to investigate the effect of all the undergoing
river processes. The model developed in this study will be helpful to implement the dissolved oxygen concentration variation not only on a spatial
concentration but also on temporal variation too. The computer model which will generate by using this model can be used to predict the spatio-temporal
variation of the most of the river water quality parameters by using advance computer programs. The advantage of this model is you can amend or remove any
process without disturbing the other process because all the incorporated processes are on an individual basis. This model can be applied to any watershed to
obtain spatio-temporal variation of the dissolved oxygen concentration.

Future Research Works

The computer model generated in this study will be applied to the real world example, i.e YS reservoir, for model verification in future studies. And this
will also be applied to the Maha-Oya River in Sri Lanka after advance studies.

Acknowledgement
This Study was supported by UNU-GIST Joint Program on Science and
Technology for Sustainability