Catchment Water Quality Model: Sensitivity Analysis and Parameters Estimation
Imteaz, M. and Hossain, I., Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
(free)
Investigations on water quality parameters are required to protect the aquatic environment
and to determine appropriate management options for water quality issues. Usual practice of
water quality investigations are performed through separate models in isolation, which can
lead to inconsistencies and significant bias in the investigations. As a first step to develop a
comprehensive integrated catchment-stream water quality model, a catchment water quality
model was developed. The developed catchment water quality model can continuously
simulate runoff water quality for different water quality parameters i.e. TSS (Total Suspended
Solids), TN (Total Nitrogen), TP (Total Phosphorus). For pollutants build-up in the catchment
one of three different pre-defined functions (Power, Exponential and Saturation) can be
selected. For pollutants wash-off one of three different functions (Power, Rating-curve and
Exponential) can be selected. Each function is defined by one/more parameters. This paper
presents sensitivity of rainfall on runoff water quality and parameters estimation under
different scenario.
KEY WORDS: Catchment water quality, total suspended solids, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, pollutants build-up and pollutants wash-off
