Author(s)

C. Cavuoti, I.M. Mancini, S. Masi, A. Sole & G. Zuccaro

Abstract

At the present it is widely established that the water resource management strategies should include actions for maintaining the environmental state, independently from the specific destination of use. The deficiency of technical instruments like as water quality models consolidated by experience, makes extremely complex the attainment of such objectives. Starting from a critical analysis of the main existing models, an original river water quality model has been developed. This model is characterised by a steady state hydraulic regime and describes the transport and biodegradation processes of the main components of an urban effluent: BOD, ammonia and nitrate. The developed model has been calibrated and verified by using two sets of data from a monitoring campaigns carried out in dry weather conditions, when the dilution effect is insignificant. The optimal parameter set has been defined and the model application results to be satisfactory to reproduce the effect on river water quality of a point pollutant source. Indeed the average calibration error results to be acceptable.

Keywords