Estimation of pollutant loads considering dam operation in Han River Basin by BASINS/Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN

Water Sci Technol. 2008;58(12):2329-38. doi: 10.2166/wst.2008.832.

Abstract

Effective watershed management often demands qualitative and quantitative predictions of the effect of future management activities as arguments for policy makers and administration. The BASINS geographic information system was developed to compute total maximum daily loads, which are helpful to establish hydrological process and water quality modeling system. In this paper the BASINS toolkit HSPF model is applied in 20,271 km(2) large watershed of the Han River Basin is used for applicability of HSPF and BMPs scenarios. For proper evaluation of watershed and stream water quality, comprehensive estimation methods are necessary to assess large amounts of point source and nonpoint-source (NPS) pollution based on the total watershed area. In this study, The Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF) was estimated to simulate watershed pollutant loads containing dam operation and applied BMPs scenarios for control NPS pollution. The 8-day monitoring data (about three years) were used in the calibration and verification processes. Model performance was in the range of "very good" and "good" based on percent difference. The water-quality simulation results were encouraging for this large sizable watershed with dam operation practice and mixed land uses; HSPF proved adequate, and its application is recommended to simulate watershed processes and BMPs evaluation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Calibration
  • Computer Simulation*
  • Geographic Information Systems*
  • Geography
  • Rivers*
  • Waste Disposal, Fluid
  • Water / standards
  • Water Movements
  • Water Pollutants / analysis*
  • Water Purification / standards
  • Wetlands

Substances

  • Water Pollutants
  • Water