| Abstract: | Water quality two‐dimensional models are often partitioned into separate modules with separate hydraulic and biological units. In most cases this approach results in poor flexibility whenever the biological dynamics has to be adapted to a specific situation. Conversely, an integrated approach is pursued in this article, producing a two‐dimensional hydraulic‐water quality model, named Shallow Water Analysis and Modeling Program (SWAMP) designed for shallow water bodies. The major objective of the work is to create a comprehensive two‐dimensional water quality assessment tool, based on an open framework and combining easy programming of additional procedures with a user‐friendly interface. The model is based on the numerical solution of the partial differential equations describing advection‐diffusion and biological processes on a two‐dimensional rectangular finite elements mesh. The hydraulics and advection‐diffusion modules model were validated both with experimental tracer data collected at a constructed wetland site and a comparison with a commercial hydrodynamic software, showing good agreement in both cases. Moreover, the model was tested in critical conditions for mass conservation, such as time‐varying wet boundary, showing a considerable numerical robustness. In the last part of the article water quality simulations are presented, though validation data are not yet available. Nevertheless, the observed model response demonstrates general consistency with expected results and the advantages of integrating the hydraulic and quality modules. The interactive graphical user interface (GUI) is also shown to represent a simple and effective connective tool to the integrated package. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 18: 663–687, 2002; DOI 10.1002/num.10014 |
