As the demand for water continuously increases with population growth and economic development, the gap between water supply and demand in China has become increasingly wide. In recent years worsening water pollution has caused this gap to become much more serious. Conventional allocation pattern, which mainly considers water quantity as the key factor, is no longer satisfying the water allocation need. A coupled water quantity–quality model in a river basin is presented in this paper to provide a tool for water allocation schemes analysis. The pollutants transport and hydrological cycling processes in a river basin are involved in the model. A river network is divided into different reaches. According to the division of river network, the areas out of the river are divided into a series of tanks. In each tank, hydrologic processes, pollutant loading production, water demand of users and water supply are calculated. In river network, hydrodynamics processes and water quality are simulated. Water quantity and quality exchanges between each tank and river are also considered. The time step of water quality calculation is 24 h, the same with that of water quantity calculation. In each time step period, the connections of river reaches and tanks are realized through the exchange of water quantity and quality between rivers and tanks: pollutants discharge from tanks to rivers and water intake from rivers to satisfy water demand in tanks. The water use in each tank includes three types: domestic, industrial and agricultural water use. Water allocation schemes are one of the input conditions of the model. Using the proposed model, in each tank, water demand and deficit of different uses, in both water quantity and quality, can be obtained under different water allocation schemes. According to the water deficit, water allocation schemes are analyzed to make proper allocation schemes. In this aspect, the proposed model can also be thought as a water allocation model. The model is tested and applied to the Jiaojiang River basin, Zhejiang Province, China, to analyze the different water resource allocation schemes. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
