Transient Solute Dispersion in Wetland Flows With Submerged Vegetation: An Analytical Study in Terms of Time‐Dependent Properties

Abstract Predicting the concentration distribution of solute transport in vegetated flows is significant for associated environmental applications in water resources. While a semianalytical study has been made for the steady dispersion with a continuous release (Rubol et al., 2016, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR018907 ), an in‐depth analytical investigation has yet to be performed for the more complicated case of transient dispersion due to an instantaneous release. In regard to the pioneering benchmark observation (Murphy et al., 2007, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006WR005229 ) of transient solute dispersion in a submerged vegetated flow for an instantaneous source release at the top of the canopy, an extensive analytical effort is paid in this work to derive the time‐dependent basic properties and to investigate the temporal evolution of concentration distribution. Obtained large‐time asymptotic dispersivities agree well with available experimental results (Murphy et al., 2007, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006WR005229 ), with higher significance ( , ) for correlation between analytical results and experimental data. Analytical solutions covering effects of dispersivity, skewness, and kurtosis of detailed concentration distribution are compared satisfactorily with numerical results obtained by the random displacement method. The findings illuminate the applicability of this analytical approach in environmental risk assessment and water quality management.