Modeling fecal coliform contamination in a tidal Danshuei River estuarine system

Abstract

A three-dimensional fecal coliform transport model was developed and incorporated into a hydrodynamic model to obtain a better understanding of local microbiological water quality in the tidal Danshuei River estuarine system of northern Taiwan. The model was firstly validated with the salinity and fecal coliform data measured in 2010. The concentration comparison showed quantitatively good agreement between the simulation and measurement results. Further, the model was applied to investigate the effects of upstream freshwater discharge variation and fecal coliform loading reduction on the contamination distributions in the tidal estuarine system. The qualitative and quantitative analyses clearly revealed that low freshwater discharge resulted in higher fecal coliform concentration. The fecal coliform loading reduction considerably decreased the contamination along the Danshuei River-Tahan Stream, the Hsintien Stream, and the Keelung River.

Keywords: Fecal coliform contamination; Freshwater discharge; Numerical modeling; SELFE-FC; Salinity; Tidal estuarine system.