A Water Quality Model with Three Dimensional Variational Data Assimilation for Contaminant Transport

The safety of water delivery and water quality in the South to North Water Transfer Project is important to China. When sudden pollution accidents happen in this project, a high-accuracy water quality model is needed to simulate contaminant transport. Data assimilation algorithm can be used to improve the accuracy of model, and a water quality model with three dimensional variational data assimilation (3DVAR-WQM), are developed in this paper. A contaminant transport experiment has been conducted for verifying the feasibility and accuracy of this model. After analyzing the simulated results in 3DVAR-WQM and the standard water quality model without assimilation, it has been found that the model with simulation estimates the arrival time and value of the peak concentration more accurately, and that the error between the simulated and observed data in this model is little. At the same time, the root mean square error of this model are smaller. This paper increases forecasting skills through data assimilation techniques, and it provides a tool for improving water quality management in the South to North Water Transfer Project of China.