AWWA WQTC71530

Recent advances in sensor technology and data telemetry allow a range of surface meteorological and vertical water-column data to be collected simultaneously, in real time, for lakes and reservoirs. With recent advancements in computer technology, three-dimensional lake and reservoir models can be run in much shorter time frames, allowing for real-time simulations of hydrodynamics and water quality. Together, these advances allow for the development of quasi-real- time decision-support systems for water quality management of individual lakes and reservoir systems. Using real-time instrumentation, the models can "learn" from the data and continuously check their predictive capabilities. Real-time model simulations will provide necessary information for "data-driven" monitoring schemes designed to examine current physical, chemical, and biological conditions that impair the water quality of a lake or reservoir, like algal blooms. For example, real-time model simulations and resultant animations of algal patch development (functional groups like nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria or even species like Microcystis aeruginosa), which may be responsible for taste and odor or toxin problems in drinking water, will provide up-to-date information that can be used by monitoring teams to cost-effectively target data-collection to specific locations in the lake or reservoir and collect data throughout the growth phase and subsequent crash of the algal population. Until recently, recognition of an algal bloom in a lake or reservoir did not happen until after the bloom peaked or crashed, and then too late to collect information about the conditions that propagated the bloom. Understanding the processes that lead to an algal bloom and water quality impairment will aid in the design of in-lake or landscape engineering or management solutions to reduce or eliminate future impairments. Example applications of the recent technology (using idealized conditions) include two reservoir systems and one lake: Beaver Lake, an impounded mountain valley reservoir in the Ozarks of northwestern Arkansas; Lake Houston, an impounded flood-plain reservoir near the Gulf Coast of Texas; and, the south arm of the Great Salt Lake. Includes abstract only.