Thank you so much Mr.Leonidas Carrasco-Letelier, for your valuable information about QUAL2K
There is a whole literature around versions of RIVPACs, which started in England. These various approaches use ,multivariate methods to assess invertebrate communities ,measured against reference conditions. Follow the literature of Richard Norris at the university of canberra for example. The advantage of inverts is that they capture longer term effects, of course the cause and effect is not always simple. Hence the signal method was then developed by Brice Chessman to describe which taxa respond to what.
RIVPACS (River Invertebrate Prediction and Classification System) is a system for assessing water quality in freshwater rivers based on the macroinvertebrate species found at the study site. The species found at the reference sites collectively make up the species assemblage for that site and are the basis for a statistical comparison between reference sites and non-reference sites. Reference sites can be chosen and adjusted several different ways. Usually they represent the best conditions within the region or area under study. Sometimes the reference site expectations are adjusted for degradation of the entire region by human impact.
'Pristine' freshwater sites are sampled to collect information on physical characteristics, chemistry and macroinvertebrates. This information is then used to predict what invertebrates are present from samples of physicochemistry from other sites.
Yes, and this is not without limitations. If the best reference sites you can find are partially impacted and/or not representative of the river types at the impacted sites then there are analysis concerns.
There are many approaches. It really comes down to what you need to manage within the river, and also what data is available, or can be made available through monitoring and/or research.
Many approaches and quite a number of 'softwares' available depending on what you want to study/monitor, availability of data and of course finanical constraint. QUAL2K, WASP, SWAT are some of the common softwares that are available in public domain. Some commercial softwares are also capable of doing the same things.
QUAL2K (or Q2K) is a river and stream water quality model that is intended to represent a modernized version of the QUAL2E (or Q2E) model (Brown and Barnwell 1987). Q2K is similar to Q2E in the following respects:
One dimensional. The channel is well-mixed vertically and laterally.
it focuses on biogeochemistry and other water dynamics unlike RIVPACS which places an emphasis on spatio-temporal distribution of invertebrates across pollution gradients.
QUAL2KW is a version of QUAL2K that is maintained by the Washington State Department of Ecology. It is available at this link:
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/models.html
The QUAL2KW framework has the following characteristics:
- Non-steady, non-uniform flow using kinematic wave flow routing. Capable of continuous simulation with time-varying boundary conditions for periods of up to one year. Also has the option to use repeating diel conditions with either steady or non-steady flows. Also includes optional transient storage zones (surface and hyporheic transient storage zones).
- One dimensional. The channel is well-mixed vertically and laterally. Also includes up to two optional transient storage zones connected to each main channel reach (surface and hyporheic transient storage zones).
- Dynamic heat budget. The heat budget and temperature are simulated as a function of meteorology on a continuously varying or repeating diel time scale.
- Dynamic water-quality kinetics. All water quality state variables are simulated on a continuously varying or repeating diel time scale for biogeochemical processes.
- Heat and mass inputs. Point and non-point loads and abstractions are simulated.
- Phytoplankton and bottom algae in the water column, as well as sediment diagenesis, and heterotrophic metabolism in the hyporheic zone are simulated.
- Variable stoichiometry. Luxury uptake of nutrients by the bottom algae (periphyton) is simulated with variable stoichiometry of N and P.
- Automatic calibration. Includes a genetic algorithm to automatically calibrate the kinetic rate parameters.
- Monte Carlo simulation. Ready to use with either Crystal Ball or YASAIw add-ins (YASAIw is a free Monte Carlo add-in also available at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/models.html)
We have several index for assessing the pollution in the river, both standard and local method.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Collaboration