Lakes and Reservoirs

This chapter describes characteristics of lakes and reservoirs, their hydrodynamic, sediment, and water quality processes, and case studies on the modeling of lakes and reservoirs. The major differences in characteristics between natural lakes and manmade reservoirs include morphometry, biological zones, external loadings, and management objectives. Reservoirs have a great deal of spatial variation in hydrodynamic and water quality variables. The chapter focuses on the following hydrodynamic processes: inflows and outflows, wind forcing and vertical circulations, seasonal variations of thermal stratification, gyres, and seiches. These processes are commonly seen and often play significant roles in lakes and reservoirs, but they are not limited to lakes and reservoirs. They may also be observed in other waterbodies, such as rivers and estuaries. Modeling of lakes and reservoirs is different from the modeling of rivers and estuaries in many aspects. Because of their long retention times, lakes and reservoirs are typically more sensitive to eutrophication than rivers and estuaries.