A Review of Modelling Tools for Implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in Handling Diffuse Water Pollution

Abstract

A numerical catchment-scale model capable of simulating diffuse water pollution is necessary in sustainable environmental management for better implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive. This paper provides critical reviews of most popular and free models for diffuse water modelling, with detailed sources and application potential. Based upon these reviews, further work of selecting and testing the HSPF model was carried out, with a case study in the Upper Bann Catchment, NorthernIreland. The calibrated and validated HSPF model can well represent the characteristics of surface water quantity and quality. Climate change scenario evaluation in five years showed that when the annual mean temperature increase 3°C the mean yearly total runoff volume will decrease by 11.1% and the mean daily river flow 11.4%. If 20% crop and pasture land is converted into forest land in the study area, the mean river concentration of nitrate, nitrite, NH 4 and PO 4 in five years will decrease by 19.4%, 33.3%, 31.3% and 31.3% respectively. When applying filter strip method in 80% crop and pasture land in the area, the reduction of the mean concentration of nitrate, nitrite, NH 4 and PO 4 in five years will be 15.3%, 33.3%, 31.3%, and 5.6% respectively. This Software availabilitySoftware name/source: all reviewed software are mentioned in the text.

A Review and Discussion on Modeling and Assessing Agricultural Best Management Practices under Global Climate Change

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Prediction of Climate Change Induced Temperature & Precipitation: The Case of Iran

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Catchment-scale vulnerability assessment of groundwater pollution from diffuse sources using the DRASTIC method: a case study

“…Many groundwater vulnerability studies have been carried out worldwide (Gogu & Dassargues, 2000;Bekesi & McConchie, 2002;Daly et al, 2002;Dixon et al, 2002;Gogu et al, 2003;Gemitzi et al, 2006;Yang & Wang, 2010). To date there are four main types of method for groundwater vulnerability assessment (Worrall & Besien, 2005;Wang & Yang, 2008): (a) modelling approaches using physical-process-based simulation models to estimate approximately the contaminant transport (Barbash & Resek, 1996;Thapinta & Hudak, 2003); (b) observation-based methods generating groundwater vulnerability maps based on observed contaminants; (c) statistical methods to correlate spatial variables with the actual occurrence of pollutants in groundwater (Babiker et al, 2005); and (d) index methods combining the factors controlling the pollutant transport from the ground surface into the saturated zone and resulting in spatially-distributed vulnerability indices.…”