Assessment of distributed hydrological model performance for simulation of multi-heavy-metal transport in Harrach River, Algeria

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the performance of a distributed hydrological model for simulating the transport of various heavy metals in rivers, to enhance and support environmental monitoring strategies for rivers in developing countries. In this context, we evaluated the performance of the Geophysical flow Circulation (GeoCIRC) model based on Object-Oriented Design (OOD) for the simulation of contamination from multiple heavy metals (Pb, Hg, Cr, and Zn) in Harrach River in Algeria. The results of the case study were in good agreement with the observations. Methodology for the assessment of data quality control and the improvement of monitoring procedures was proposed by using the hydrological model to simulate different scenarios. The GeoCIRC-model-based OOD allowed the prediction of the concentrations of heavy metals with minimal input data. Also, various heavy metals could be numerically treated simultaneously because the OOD increases the model’s flexibility to allow the handling of many transportable materials. Therefore, the GeoCIRC model is a powerful tool for the monitoring of environmental contamination in rivers by various heavy metals.