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Water quality modeling of the Cahaba River, Alabama

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

The Cahaba River, a sixth-order stream, tributary to the Mobile-Alabama River, is one of the few free-flowing rivers in Alabama. The Cahaba River lies in north-central Alabama and its watershed includes a variety of land uses from forested and agricultural to urban. Water quantity and quality modeling of the Cahaba River using several modules of the hydrologic simulation program FORTRAN (HSPF) and the nonpoint source model (NPSM) using the GIS-based BASINS package showed good agreement with measured flow data for low- and high-flow years but poor agreement with total nitrogen concentrations in the water column. Disparities between modeling and measured water quality data are attributed to the limited point source data available for nitrogen inputs to the stream and the lack of nitrogen-transformation process modeling with the NPSM. Future simulations should include use of models with detailed nitrogen transformation modules.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank S. Rocky Durrans, W. Berry Lyons, John J. Warwick and William Thomas for their input into the implementation of this model and their helpful comments and criticisms as the work progressed. Thanks to Elisabeth L. Sikes for her comments, which greatly improved the original manuscript. This research was supported by R/ER-46-PD grant # NA86RG0039 from the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. The University of Alabama's Environmental Institute provided partial funding to DNE for this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL , 35487, USA

    Dahlia N. El-Kaddah

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, The Ohio State University, 125 South Oval Drive, Columbus, OH , 43214-1398, USA

    Anne E. Carey

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  1. Dahlia N. El-Kaddah
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  2. Anne E. Carey
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Correspondence to Anne E. Carey.

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El-Kaddah, D.N., Carey, A.E. Water quality modeling of the Cahaba River, Alabama. Env Geol 45, 323–338 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-003-0890-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-003-0890-2

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