Abstract
We consider a model for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in a semi-infinite river where the BOD is prescribed by a time varying function at the left endpoint. That is, we study the problem with a time varying boundary loading. We obtain the well-posedness for the model when the boundary loading is smooth in time. We also obtain various qualitative results such as ordering, positivity, and boundedness. Of greatest interest, we show that a periodic loading function admits a unique asymptotically attracting periodic solution. For non-smooth loading functions, we obtain weak solutions. Finally, for certain special cases, we show how to obtain explicit solutions in the form of infinite series.