An hydrological transport model is a mathematical model used to simulate the flow of rivers, streams, groundwater movement or drainage front displacement, and calculate water quality parameters. These models generally came into use in the 1960s and 1970s when demand for numerical forecasting of water quality and drainage was driven by environmental legislation, and at a similar time widespread access to significant computer power became available. Much of the original model development took place in the United States and United Kingdom, but today these models are refined and used worldwide.
There are dozens of different transport models that can be generally grouped by pollutants addressed, complexity of pollutant sources, whether the model is steady state or dynamic, and time period modeled. Another important designation is whether the model is distributed (i.e. capable of predicting multiple points within a river) or lumped. In a basic model, for example, only one pollutant might be addressed from a simple point discharge into the receiving waters. In the most complex of models, various line source inputs from surface runoff might be added to multiple point sources, treating a variety of chemicals plus sediment in a dynamic environment including vertical river stratification and interactions of pollutants with in-stream biota. In addition watershed groundwater may also be included. The model is termed "physically based" if its parameters can be measured in the field.
Often models have separate modules to address individual steps in the simulation process. The most common module is a subroutine for calculation of surface runoff, allowing variation in land use type, topography, soil type, vegetative cover, precipitation and land management practice (such as the application rate of a fertilizer). The concept of hydrological modeling can be extended to other environments such as the oceans, but most commonly (and in this article) the subject of a river watershed is generally implied.