• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.243-252
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• 2016

In cases of water pollution accidents, accurate prediction for arrival time and concentration of contaminants in a river is essential to take proper measures and minimize their impact on downstream water intake facilities. It is critical to fully understand the behavior characteristics of contaminants on river surface, especially in case of oil spill accidents. Therefore, in this study, the effects of main parameters of advection and diffusion of contaminants were analyzed and validated by comparing the results of Lagrangian particle tracking (LPT) simulation of Environmental Fluid Dynamic Code (EFDC) model with those of Global Position System (GPS)-equipped drifter experiment. Prevention scenario modeling was accomplished by taking cases of movable weir operation into account. The simulated water level and flow velocity fluctuations agreed well with observations. There was no significant difference in the speed of surface particle movement between 5 and 10 layer modeling. Therefore, 5 layer modeling could be chosen to reduce computational time. It was found that full three dimensional modeling simulated wind effects on surface particle movements more sensitively than depth-averaged two dimensional modeling. The diffusion range of particles was linearly proportional to horizontal diffusivity by sensitivity analysis. Horizontal diffusivity estimated from the results of GPS-equipped drifter experiment was 0.096 m²/sec, which was considered to be valid for applying the LPT module in this area. Finally, the scenario analysis results showed that particle movements could be stagnant when discharge from the upstream weir was reduced, implying the possibility of securing time for mitigation actions such as oil boom installation and wiping oil contaminants. The outcomes of this study can help improve the prediction accuracy of particle tracking simulation to establish the most suitable mitigation plan considering the combination of movable weir operation.