Water Quality Forecasting

Water quality forecasting models are increasingly used to help with managing rivers, lakes and reservoirs. Applications include early warnings following pollution incidents, forecasting the progression of harmful algal blooms, and issuing bathing water quality advisories. Typically the functionality in flow forecasting models is extended to represent the transport of chemical or biological constituents as required. Model types include hydrodynamic models, flow routing models and distributed and integrated catchment models. However, empirical and statistical techniques are also used, including data-driven and artificial intelligence approaches. This chapter provides an introduction to these topics, including examples for the water quality alarm system on the river Rhine in the Netherlands and bathing water quality alerts in Scotland.