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ARS Home » Plains Area » Temple, Texas » Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #309697
Title: Modeling water-quality loads to the reservoirs of the Upper Trinity River Basin, Texas, USA

Author
item LEE, TAESOO - Chonnam National University
item WANG, XIUYING - Texas Agrilife Research
item White, Michael
item TUPPAD, PUSHPA - University Of Mysore
item SRINIVASAN, RAGHAVAN - Texas A&M University
item NARASIMHAN, BALAJI - Tamil Nadu Agricultural University
item ANDREWS, DARREL - Chonnam National University

Submitted to: Water
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/14/2015
Publication Date: 10/20/2015
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/61903
Citation: Lee, T., Wang, X., White, M.J., Tuppad, P., Srinivasan, R., Narasimhan, B., Andrews, D. 2015. Modeling water-quality loads to the reservoirs of the Upper Trinity River Basin, Texas, USA. Water. 7(10):5689-5704.

Interpretive Summary: This study describes modeling efforts in 12 reservoirs used as water supplies for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro area. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to evaluate the impacts on water quality due to future population increases. We found that the pollutants; specifically nitrogen and phosphorus will increase by up to 23.0% and 111.0% respectively.

Technical Abstract: Water quality modeling efforts have been conducted for 12 reservoirs in ten watersheds in Upper Trinity River Basin located in north Texas. The reservoirs are being used for water supply to the populated area around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro and the water quality of some of these reservoirs has been listed for concern with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. This study summarizes modeling efforts for Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Phosphorous (TP) for the watersheds using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) as a following study of flow and sediment modeling work. Calibrated models using nutrient data from monitoring stations assessed nutrient loading from each watershed. This study also estimates the impacts on water quality due to the projected population increase in this area. The result showed that the increase of TN and TP in each watershed reached up to 23.0% and 111.0% respectively due to the population increase.