River water quality modeling as a supporting tool of river management in Indonesia

Abstract

Many urban river water qualities in Indonesia have decrease due to both domestic and non-domestic wastewater discharges. One effort in restoring the river quality is by modeling of the river to determine the most appropriate actions to take. At present many river modeling have been carried out in order to restore river water quality. However, implication of modeling utilization is still insignificant. This study aims to investigate the application of water quality modeling in Indonesian urban rivers. Methods used in this study including expert interviews, previous research review, and data analysis. The research result gives condition that modeling is merely applied in limited function. Stakeholders sometimes doubt the modeling results. It is caused by several aspects of uncertainty, such as river discharge fluctuation, unstable pollution concentration, etc. In addition, the model used is often obtained from sub-tropical area, so there is a disparity of conditions with the environment in Indonesia. Nevertheless, water quality modeling plays an important role in environmental impact assessment as a prediction tool in Indonesia.