Hydrodynamic Impact of Ship Waves on River Water Quality: Insights from Numerical Simulations

The impact of inland shipping on river water quality and ecological environment emerges as a great concern in green shipping. In the present study, a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model has been established by Delft3D for Madang Reach, which locates at the downstream of the Yangtze River, China. The moving pressure field method was employed to simulating ship waves under a variety of scenarios. Thus, the spatiotemporal characteristics of water quality indicators were investigated. The findings demonstrate that concentrations of water quality indicators exhibited significant variation for different research periods. More specifically, higher concentrations were observed for flooding period compared to the drought period. The hydrodynamic impact of ship waves was generally negligible on dissolved pollutants, e.g., chemical oxygen demand (CODMn), total phosphorus (TP) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3N). However, notable increase of total suspended solids (TSS) concentration was observed, which peaked at a growth rate of 18.9%. The results share valuable insights into the impact of shipping activities on water environmental management and would support the sustainable development of inland waterway transport.