The hydrodynamic and water quality model is widely used in the water environmental capacity calculation. However, the establishing of the model depends very much on the cross section data, which are sometimes not available, especially in medium and small river areas of West China. In this paper, the Google Earth remote sensing images, the maximum river water depth obtained from the field measurement and a piecewise mathematical model are combined to acquire the generalized cross section data. The MIKE, the hydrodynamic and water quality model worldwidely used, is adopted to test the generalized cross section data. The 1-D hydrodynamic and water quality models are established with the generalized cross section data and the cross section data obtained from field measurement, respectively. The method is tested through a comparison of the outputs (including the water level, the flow velocity, and the pollutant density) of the two models with different cross section inputs. According to the result, no significant differences are found between the two models in the water level, the flow velocity, and the pollutant density at the upper, middle and lower sections of the simulated river segment. It is emphasized that identical parameters, except the cross section data, are used for the models. The consistency of two model outputs can be improved further through the input of the field water level, the flow velocity, and the pollutant density. This research provides a simple and convenient way to establish the cross section file for building the 1-D Hydrodynamic and quality model under the MIKE11 in the areas where the measured cross section data are not available.

river with less data  /  1-D model hydrodynamic and water quality  /  generalized cross section  /  Google Earth remote sensing image