An improved non-point source pollution model for catchment-scale hydrological processes and phosphorus loads

Non-point source (NPS) pollutants may cause water quality deterioration and eutrophication, posing a significant threat to aquatic systems. Understanding and modelling surface and sub-surface hydrological processes and nutrient cycles are therefore essential for water resources management and pollution control. This paper presents a new hydrological-water quality model for application in humid and semi-humid catchments in China, considering both hydrological processes, and nutrient transport and transformation. The model divides the soil into three layers, and each layer is implemented with individual computational procedures for soil wetness and nutrient process. Nutrient transport is driven by hydrological processes and follows the same pathways as water flow in the model: surface runoff, infiltration, and outflow from individual soil layers. River channels are described separately with routines to account for the turnover of nutrients. Model parameters are selected according to literature/open-sourced data or estimated from soil texture or land use types. The model is applied to simulate the hydrological processes and phosphorus transport in the Tongyang River Basin in China and the model performance is confirmed by comparing the predicted discharge and total phosphorus concentrations with measured data at the catchment outlets of Tonghe River and Yanghe River over 3 years. Uncertainty analysis has been further carried out using the GLUE method to demonstrate sensitivity of the simulation results to the selection of model parameters. After model calibration, the predicted results are found to compare well with field observations in terms of flow discharge and total phosphorus concentration. From sensitivity analysis, it is found that the recession coefficient of channel system (CS) and the pollutant recession coefficient of surface runoff (pKS) are the most influential hydrological and water quality parameters that control the arrival time and duration of flood peak and nutrient concentration peak, respectively.

Automated summary

Non-point source pollutants pose a significant threat to aquatic systems by deteriorating water quality and causing eutrophication. This paper presents a new hydrological-water quality model for humid and semi-humid catchments in China, considering both hydrological processes and nutrient transport. The model divides the soil into three layers and incorporates separate computational procedures for soil wetness and nutrient process. Nutrient transport follows the same pathways as water flow, including surface runoff, infiltration, and outflow from soil layers. The model is successfully applied to simulate hydrological processes and phosphorus transport in the Tongyang River Basin, and sensitivity analysis reveals influential parameters controlling flood peak arrival time and nutrient concentration peak duration.