Determining Thermal Stratification of Zayandeh Roud Dam Reservoirs Using Two-Dimensional CE-QUAL-W2 Model

Dam reservoirs, serving as critical repositories of water resources, play an important role for satisfying water demands. However, the pollution of various sources poses significant challenges to the preservation of water quality of these reservoirs. Here, effective management of these resources is necessary. For this purpose, the modeling and simulation of dam reservoirs should be done investigating the impact of pollution. This study focuses on the Zayandeh Roud Dam reservoir in Isfahan province, using historical data from 2016 to 2021. Here, the CEQUAL-W2 model is used for simulation and determining the temperature of water stored in reservoir and release from the dam. Calibration and verification process of model are done for the periods 2016 to 2020 and 2021, respectively. The simulation results show that absolute mean error (AME) of the water temperature release the reservoir are 0.80 degrees Celsius for calibration and 1.16 degrees Celsius for validation process. The results highlighted the performance of advanced modeling approaches, the CEQUAL-W2 model, for the proper management of dam reservoirs.