Influence of River Discharge Fluctuation and Tributary Mixing on Water Quality of Geum River, Korea

Abstract

To study the influence of changes in river discharge on water quality of the main stem of the Geum River, we investigated variation of inflow load from tributaries with river discharge. We also studied the mixing behavior of pollutants during mixing of waters of the main stem and Gap Stream. For this study, we collected water quality data such as suspended solids (SS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) representing pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon events of 2013 from a website of Water Information System. Based on inflow load, the Gap and Miho streams may be ones of tributaries which may largely influence water quality of main stem in upper river region. The Suksung and Nonsan Streams seemed to further affect water quality downstream. Results of modified EMMA indicated SS and TP may have another source(besides Gap Stream) at pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon period. In contrast, TN and organic matter (BOD, COD, TOC) were conservative at pre-monsoon and post-monsoon. However, when river discharge increased, these pollutants may also came from unspecified non-point sources. Therefore, we need to attempt to find non-point sources for the pollutants in the main channel of upper Geum River region.