Numerical simulation of water environment capacity from wet, normal, and dry years: taking the Luo River as an example

Abstract

Abstract Water pollution is a globally significant issue. Water environment simulation is an important tool to study water pollution. In order to investigate the impact of hydrological periods, water quality indicators and cross-sections on the water environment capacity, we took the Luo River in Luoyang City as an example, and used MIKE21-coupled hydrodynamic and water quality model and the segmentation method to calculate the water environment capacity of COD, TP, and NH3-N in wet, normal, and dry periods under L1 (Gao Yazhai-Lilou), L2 (Li Lou-Baimasi), and L3 (Baimasi-G207 Highway Bridge) section. The results of the study showed that from the hydrological period, the water environmental capacity was the largest in the wet period due to the dilution effect caused by higher precipitation; from the water quality indexes, the COD concentration was the largest due to industrial pollution, but the higher degradation coefficients result in the largest water environment capacity for COD; from the cross-section, L1 has the longest channel, thus the highest capacity of the water environment was L1. This result can broaden ideas for the application of the MIKE21 model, provide a basis for the calculation of the dynamic water environment capacity and water pollution control in the river.