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This study presented a new inversion algorithm on the basis of least squares method for river point pollution sources. A series of numerical experiments was conducted to verify the accuracy of the proposed inversion algorithm. The general solution of the one‐dimensional (1D) pollutant transport equation is the governing equation of this method. Pollutant concentrations at various hypothetical monitoring points should be observed at two moments to obtain the point pollution source parameters, namely, velocity, longitudinal dispersion coefficient, emission moment of the pollution source, emission location, and emission intensity. Monitoring error was considered a random noise in the numerical experiments. The inversion result error was 3.69% when the monitoring error was 5%. Although the monitoring error reached 20%, the maximum error of inversion parameters was 8.58%. In addition, the effects of river flow velocity, contaminant decay rates, monitoring point setting, and time intervals between two sampling groups were analyzed in hypothetic cases. Practitioner points Present a new inversion algorithm for river point pollution sources. Multiple parameters can be obtained by inversion. The unknown river velocity does not affect the result of parameter inversion. Different levels of pollutant concentration monitoring errors are considered.

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