Implementation of Water Quality Components in the Watershed Modeling System

The Watershed Modeling System is a comprehensive graphical user environment for conducting watershed hydrologic analysis. The model was developed by the Engineering Modeling Research Laboratory of Brigham Young University in cooperation with the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station. Features of the WMS include pre- and post-processing support, GIS/CADD links, finite difference/finite element grid generation, 2D data interpolation/visualization, AVI video file animation, use of NEXRAD radar of Battlescale Forecast Models as inputs to 2D spatial models, and the ability to import digital terrain data. Models which are currently contained in the WMS lack water quality components. Current research efforts are underway to fully incorporate the Hydrologic Simulation Program - Fortran (HSPF) into the WMS as well as add water quality capabilities to the 2D distributed CASC2D model. HSPF is one of the most widely used lumped parameter water quality models in the country while CASC2D is a widely used distributed watershed model. The incorporation of water quality into CASC2D and the addition of HSPF into the WMS will provide users of the system with a selection of either a lumped or distributed parameter watershed water quality model. It is anticipated that the addition of the water quality components into the WMS will increase the utility of this state-of-the-art system. The system will be applied to research efforts involving watershed water quality and contaminant modeling.