Modeling Impact of Storage Zones on Stream Dissolved Oxygen

The Streeter-Phelps dissolved oxygen model is modified to incorporate storage zones. A dimensionless number reflecting enhanced decomposition caused by the increased residence time of the biochemical oxygen demand in the storage zone parameterizes the impact. This result provides a partial explanation for the high decomposition rates observed in shallow streams. An application suggests that the storage zone increases the critical oxygen deficit and moves it closer to the point source. It also indicates that the storage zone should have lower oxygen concentration than the main channel. An analysis of a dimensionless enhancement factor indicates that the biochemical oxygen demand decomposition in small streams could be up to two to three times more than anticipated based on the standard Streeter-Phelps model without storage zones. For larger rivers, enhancements of up to 1.5 could occur.

[1]  R. Runkel,et al.  Analysis of Transient Storage Subject to Unsteady Flow: Diel Flow Variation in an Antarctic Stream , 1998, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[2]  J. Harvey,et al.  Effect of enhanced manganese oxidation in the hyporheic zone on basin‐scale geochemical mass balance , 1998 .

[3]  P. Mulholland,et al.  Evidence that hyporheic zones increase heterotrophic metabolism and phosphorus uptake in forest streams , 1997 .

[4]  S. Chapra.  Surface Water-Quality Modeling , 1996 .

[5]  Steven C. Chapra,et al.  Reactive Solute Transport in Streams: 1. Development of an Equilibrium‐Based Model , 1996 .

[6]  K. Bencala,et al.  Reactive Solute Transport in Streams: 2. Simulation of a pH Modification Experiment , 1996 .

[7]  B. Schmid.  On the transient storage equations for longitudinal solute transport in open channels: temporal moments accounting for the effects of first-order decay , 1995 .

[8]  K. Bencala,et al.  Tracer-dilution experiments and solute-transport simulations for a mountain stream, Saint Kevin Gulch, Colorado. Water resources investigation , 1993 .

[9]  F. Triska,et al.  Modeling biotic uptake by periphyton and transient hyporrheic storage of nitrate in a natural stream , 1992 .

[10]  G. W. Zellweger,et al.  Characterization of transport in an acidic and metal-rich mountain stream based on a lithium tracer injection and simulations of transient storage , 1990 .

[11]  R. Thomann,et al.  Principles of surface water quality modeling and control , 1987 .

[12]  K. Bencala.  Interactions of solutes and streambed sediment: 2. A dynamic analysis of coupled hydrologic and chemical processes that determine solute transport , 1984 .

[13]  Roy A. Walters,et al.  Simulation of solute transport in a mountain pool‐and‐riffle stream: A transient storage model , 1983 .

[14]  K. Bencala,et al.  Simulation of solute transport in a mountain pool‐and‐riffle stream with a kinetic mass transfer model for sorption , 1983 .

[15]  Carl F. Nordin,et al.  Longitudinal dispersion in rivers: The persistence of skewness in observed data , 1980 .