Environmental Assessment > Modeling the Environment

Modeling the Environment

What is a water quality model?

A model is the act of representing something (usually on a smaller scale).  Think of a model plane.  It's a representation of a real plane.

For Ecology, water quality models are mathematical tools that are used to represent a water system.  By entering all the data into a model, we can visualize, predict, and determine water quality factors that may be causing pollution in that water. 

Understanding which factors may be responsible for certain conditions helps us problem-solve and plan a course of action for all relevant factors.

Puget Sound - Why do we need more than one model for Puget Sound?
 

Models for Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs)