Abstract:

Investigating the integrated modeling of water quantity and quality in a watershed has become an important research topic. The integrated modeling of hydrological and biogeochemical processes can quantitatively analyze the change of water cycle and water quality, which is an important means of aquatic environment research and management. By reviewing the development course and recent progress in water quality modeling, we summarized the theoretical methods and corresponding models for catchment-scale non-point source pollution and in-stream (or lake) water quality. The key points in integrated watershed modeling, including model selection, development and integration, and calibration and validation, were discussed in terms of model uncertainty. Finally, we suggested paying more attention to the integrated modeling of natural and human processes in watersheds (including the interaction between human and water environment, hydrological and biogeochemical processes integration) and the application of novel methods (including data assimilation methods, high-performance computation, and artificial intelligence technologies).

Key words: watershed modeling, numerical model, non-point source pollution, water quality