Developing Water Quality Formulations for a Semi-Distributed Rainfall–Runoff Model

• Published in: Water (Basel) Vol. 16; no. 15; p. 2072
• Main Authors: Tal-maon, Merav, Ostfeld, Avi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2024
• Subjects: Decision making; decision support systems (DSS); Drainage; Environmental protection; hydrological modeling; Hydrology; Information storage and retrieval; integrated water resource management (IWRM); Land use; peak flow; pollutant concentration; Pollutants; Quality management; Rain; Rain and rainfall; Runoff; Simulation; Stormwater management; stormwater quantity and quality; Water quality; Water resources management; Watershed management; Israel
• ISSN: 2073-4441; 2073-4441
• DOI: 10.3390/w16152072

Hydrological modeling can be challenging due to significant data requirements and computational complexities. Hydrological models must be sufficiently complex to describe physical processes yet simple enough to use. This paper describes the development of a simplified watershed-scale input–output model to simulate runoff quantity and quality during a storm event. This work builds upon an existing semi-distributed rainfall–runoff model by adding calculations for pollutant concentrations based on simplified mass balance equations. The model was tested against various watershed examples of increasing complexity. The results show the change in peak flow and pollutant concentration in different areas of the watershed, demonstrating the model’s ability to account for the dynamics of runoff movement through the watershed. This paper advances watershed management by addressing data scarcity through the development of a simplified hydrological model that effectively incorporates spatial variability within a watershed while requiring minimal data input.