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The concentration of dissolved solids and river flow
Author(s) -
O'Connor Donlad J.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr012i002p00279
Subject(s) - hydrology (agriculture) , classification of discontinuities , flow (mathematics) , groundwater , total dissolved solids , environmental science , streamflow , spatial variability , suspended solids , variable (mathematics) , flow conditions , groundwater flow , soil science , geology , aquifer , environmental engineering , geotechnical engineering , mathematics , drainage basin , geography , wastewater , statistics , geometry , mathematical analysis , cartography
A general expression for the spatial and temporal distribution of conservative dissolved solids in freshwater rivers which incorporates the contribution of both the groundwater and surface water components of river flow is presented. The first part of this paper deals with the steady state conditions. With certain simplifying assumptions the correlation between concentration of dissolved solids and flow is developed for both spatially uniform and nonuniform conditions. The analysis includes the effect of both geophysical discontinuities and point sources. Examples from a number of rivers throughout the country are presented to indicate the utility of the analysis. The second part addresses the temporal variation of the dissolved solids concentration for two time scales. One describes the annual variation in concentration due to the time variable components of the river flow, and the second the variation over a semimonthly period due to a time variable point input. Applications to a variety of river conditions are also presented for the time variable analysis.