Author(s)

L.F. Leon & M. Escalante

Abstract

Flow and pollutant transport in Lake Chapala, Mexico L.F. Leon, M. Escalante fnafzWo Meccano de TecWo^m Je/ ^^a, f O Boz 62500 Civac, Morelos, Mexico ABSTRACT Lake Chapala, the largest natural lake in Mexico, is the principal water source for the Guadalajara metropolitan area. The inflow stream, Lerma River, drains a basin of almost 52,500 knf receiving urban, agricultural, and industrial untreated wastewaters. The result is a highly polluted inflow to a very shallow lake that is then transported, due to currents generated by wind, what makes assessment of flow patterns and concentration distributions necessary for operational purposes at the pumping station, and evaluation of different scenarios focused on reducing the levels of pollution on the water resource. This paper presents the flow patterns and pollutant transport in Lake Chapala. Three different computational models were tested for inter-calibration purposes taking into account convection, wind a

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