These modeling results under different pollution scenarios using water quality models are very important components of environmental impact assessment. Moreover, they are also the important basis for environmental management decisions as they not only provide data assistance for selleck kinase inhibitor environmental management agencies to authorize the construction projects but also provide technical supports for water environmental protection agencies [6, 7]. Whether these model results are right or not can greatly impact the reasonability and scientific significance of the authorized construction projects and the availability of pollution control measures. With the development of model theory and the fast-updating computer technique [8], more and more water quality models have been developed with various model algorithms [3, 4].
Up to date, tens of types of water quality models including hundreds of model softwares have been developed for different topography, water bodies, and pollutants at different space and time scales [3, 9]. However, there are often big differences between these modeling results due to different theories and algorithms of these models, which can lead to the insistency of the predicted results using different models, and thus bringing different environment management decisions as these modeling results cannot be referred or compared to each other [10].The uniform model standardization system has not been established yet in most developing countries [9, 11], which limits the wide applications of these models to environmental management due to no references and comparisons among different modeling results.
Therefore, it is very necessary for most developing countries to better understand the availability Batimastat and precisions of different water quality models and their methods of calculation and calibration and progress in the model standardization in order to apply effectively these models and form a good model regulation system [11, 12]. In particular, this work can contribute to making better environmental management policies and authorizing reasonable construction projects.2. Development of Surface Water Quality ModelsSurface water quality models have undergone a long period of development since Streeter and Phelps built the first water quality model (S-P model) to control river pollution in Ohio state of the US [13]. Surface water quality models have made a big progress from single factor of water quality to multifactors of water quality, from steady-state model to dynamic model, from point source model to the coupling model of point and nonpoint sources, and from zero-dimensional mode to one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and three-dimensional models [31, 32]. More than 100 surface water quality models have been developed up to now.