Abstract
Greater focus must be placed on ensuring that the water quality model (WQM) reflects the objective of its application and the characteristics of the water environment properly before it is selected. In the development or application of WQM, various factors influencing the model predictions should be reviewed so that it can perform more properly and reasonably based on scientific theory. This study reviewed the characteristic of existing WQM and the domestic river environment to find the requirements of the model application for TMDLs management in Korea. In this study, a water quality model, QUAL-NIER, was developed based on the USEPA's QUAL2E. The core structure and reaction scheme of the model was established followed by the formulation of equations according to the scheme with some supplements on the reaction mechanisms which are necessary for domestic rivers. Algorithms on the equations were set up and programmed to form a computer-based model. The developed model, QUAL-NIER was applied to the main stem of the Nakdong river. The model was calibrated and verified to data measured in 2004. The model results displayed good agrement with the field measurements for both calibration and verification. From this study, it was concluded that the developed QUAL-NIER model was very powerful with regard to the water quality simulation in domestic rivers.