Development of the CAP Water Quality Model and Its Application to the Geum River, Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The completely mixed flow and plug flow (CAP) water quality model was developed for streams with discontinuous flows, a condition that often occurs in low base flow streams with in-stream hydraulic structures, especially during dry seasons. To consider the distinct physical properties of each reach effectively, the CAP model stream network can include both plug flow (PF) segments and completely mixed flow (CMF) segments. Many existing water quality models are capable of simulating various constituents and their interactions in surface water bodies. More complicated models do not necessarily produce more accurate results because of problems in data availability and uncertainties. Due to the complicated and even random nature of environmental forcing functions, it is not possible to construct an ideal model for every situation. Therefore, at present, many governmental level water quality standards and decisions are still based on lumped constituents, such as the carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD), the total nitrogen (TN) or the total phosphorus (TP). In these cases, a model dedicated to predicting the target concentration based on available data may provide as equally accurate results as a general purpose model. The CAP model assumes that its water quality constituents are independent of each other and thus can be applied for any constituent in waters that follow first order reaction kinetics. The CAP model was applied to the Geum River in Korea and tested for CBOD, TN, and TP concentrations. A trial and error method was used for parameter calibration using the field data. The results agreed well with QUAl₂EU model predictions.