Final TSS/Discharge Relationship Function.

[freeney2]

Hi Guys,
I'm so sorry this is a bit late. I hope you still have the time to implement it. I had to double check it with my advisors and it took a bit longer than I thought. So this equation calculates the TSS value based on discharge. This TSS number then feeds into the Turbidity equation I provided you with a few weeks ago.

The equation uses the actual discharge value, and not the discharge map being used (if possible). Also this is variable is seasonally variable. So again if possible would it be possible to use one equation for the winter months (first 90 days of the year) and a separate equation for the rest of the year (275 days). So we'd need a way to count the days and then change equations, and possibly reset the days at the end of the year if possible.

Ok the general equation is in this form:
Y-intercept +(Slope*log^discharge)
You can call the y-intercept and slope TSS-y-intercept/slope or anything on that variation you see fit so it makes sense!
The only difference between seasons is the y-intercept and slopes.
Winter:
m = 0.7363
y-intercept = -0.5076

Rest of year:
m = 13.795
y-intercept = -44.06

Hope this makes sense! Sorry again about the delay...I do realize this is technically the last day of class. My apologies! I'll be around anytime from now to meet if you need to talk about this or anything else.
Kev

[eparsons]

It looks like implementation for this will be a fair amount more involved than it was to add the turbidity calculation. There are three major considerations that need to be weighed:

1. The discharge data is currently used solely in the GUI and just to find out which hydrofiles need to be opened. To get this data into the simulation, one of two things would need to happen.

• The GUI could pass the discharge data via the config, or
• The GUI could pass the path to the discharge file via the config and the simulator itself reads the data (preferable)

2. Seasons are currently not kept track of by day of the year. Instead everything is based on the environmental input data rather than what day it is. I'm hesitant to base calculations by day of the year as that would restrict the model to simulations that start at the beginning of the year. Currently, simulations can start at any point of the year as long as the input data is set up that way. Also, using days of the year does not take into account location. For instance, I would assume that the calculations based on seasonality would be different for rivers in South Florida than the upper Mississippi. Additionally, if for some reason the simulator were used for rivers in the southern hemisphere then winter would be during the months we normal consider summer months.
3. At this point in time I am uncertain about the time available to work on this. I personally have 0 time between now and the 13th for anything other than finals and graduation... @gelo592 @billbindi @drew212 ?

The second point has me wondering if we broke the general utility of the simulator with the turbidity calculation change. @freeney2 Does the new turbidity calculation we implemented apply to all US rivers?

[freeney2]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the detailed response. I understand the worries about the model not being useful across other river systems in the world/US. Currently though we are just trying to get the model to be accurate in the area we're simulating and not worrying too much about being able to use it on other rivers quite yet. It will still be able to provide us with detailed information about rivers in general from this one system. To my knowledge this is the biggest and most detailed model of it's kind to be created of a river system so it will still be useful even if it is just using information currently for this one pool in the Mississippi River.

It wouldn't be a difficult thing to make sure that the users start at the beginning of the year. Most environmental data begins Jan 1st and runs to Dec 31st. It's probably be quicker just to run a simulation for those times than to edit the environmental data for a specific time frame. In the future we can edit these equations to be more applicable to river around the world, but that is a long way off. The only thing is that without this equation our TSS value won't be variable and so the last equation I provided you with will unfortunately be not as useful.

Lastly, I of course have no problem if you guys want to continue working on the model during the summer. That is completely up to you, if you are willing to put in that extra effort it would be awesome. Which leads me to another point, will any of you be around campus area in mid July? We're holding a conceptual modelling workshop to work out how to integrate the floodplain and aquatic portions of the model. It would be great if we had one of you guys there to help us answer questions about feasibility and general computer related stuff.

Cheers, all the best with your finals and graduation!