2025 Volume 13 Issue 1 Pages 1-19
River water temperature serves as a critical indicator of numerous biological and chemical processes essential for ecosystem support and water quality maintenance. River temperatures are expected to rise due to the increasing impact of climate change, causing potential adverse consequences. Hence, a thorough understanding of the drivers influencing river temperature is imperative. Physically or process-based models are suitable for enriching our understanding of the mechanisms regulating river temperature. In this study, we collected articles on river water temperature and modeling and classified them according to their modeling type and energy components. We reviewed the physically based models to determine the relative proportions of various energy fluxes that affect the temperature of river water. The results indicated that despite its importance, groundwater flux has not been given as much consideration as the other fluxes, particularly for small rivers. We also reviewed the semi-distributed Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, which has been applied to the computation of stream temperature and found that some modifications made to the model primarily used the equilibrium temperature approach, whereas only a few studies considered the groundwater flux. Our findings highlight the need for further improvements in modeling techniques, with special emphasis on improving the representation of subsurface fluxes, particularly groundwater, for the better management of ecosystem preservation and water quality.