Research Abstracts Online
2008 - March 2009
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Institute of Technology
Department of Civil Engineering
St. Anthony Falls Laboratory
PI: Miki Hondzo
Water Quality Modeling of Lake Minnetonka
Lake Minnetonka, located 20 miles west of Minneapolis, has 23 named lakes, bays, and areas with 123 square miles of watershed that drains into the lake by four major streams/creeks. The lake discharges at the eastern end with an annual water level fluctuation of about 1.22 feet. In 2006, total phosphorus (TP) watershed loading was over 23,800 pounds where 17 of the 26 bays had an average summer TP of 40 ppb. The lake’s water quality seems to improve from west to east. The goal of this research is to determine the scope and the level of TP loading contributions from the lake’s internal processes and the impact of intra (bay to bay) circulation on the lake’s general water quality, as well as to investigate and assess the spatial and temporal ecological parameter variation within Lake Minnetonka.
The first phase of this research involved the development of the lake bathymetry and establishing the process of modeling. The second phase is to integrate a new sediment classification map into the model in order to enhance the sediment flux model. The researchers are using MSI resources to explore the possibilities of advancing their code to support parallel computing.
Shahram Missaghi, Faculty Collaborator