An assessment of transport timescales and return coefficient in adjacent tropical estuaries

An assessment of transport timescales and return coefficient in adjacent tropical estuaries

Andutta, Fernando P. (Griffith University; Universidade de São Paulo)
Helfer, Fernanda (Griffith University)
de Miranda, Luiz Bruner (Universidade de São Paulo)
Deleersnijder, E.L.C. (TU Delft Mathematical Physics; Université Catholique de Louvain)
Thomas, Christopher (Université Catholique de Louvain)
Lemckert, Charles (Griffith University)

2016

Transport timescales (TTS), namely residence time and exposure time, were computed for adjacent shallow meso-tidal tropical estuarines system using the Lagrangian model D-Waq Part coupled with the hydrodynamic model Delft3D-Flow, and the Constituent-oriented Age and Residence time Theory, CART. The main results are threefold: (a) The TTS differs more between releases at high or low tide than between those at spring and neap tides. The exposure time was also calculated and found to be larger than the residence time by a few days. (b) The exposure and residence times were used to evaluate the return coefficient (r) for different scenarios. As with residence and exposure times, the return coefficient was found to differ more between releases at high or low tide than between those at spring and neap tides. (c) For the Caravelas Estuary, where the river inflow was low (~4 m³ s^-1), the residence time was found to be much larger than for the Peruípe Estuary, where the river discharge was greater and nearly constant during the sampling period (~20 m³ s^-1). These results shows the importance of advection in decreasing TTS in the Peruípe Estuary compared to the Caravelas Estuary. The influence of the advection and dispersion agrees with previous simple estimates obtained using the newly modified Land Ocean Interaction Coastal Zone (LOICZ) model by Andutta et al. (2014).

Exposure time
Hydrodynamics
Numerical model
Residence time
Return coefficient
Tropical estuary

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d69ec3aa-5d15-498f-ba5b-cba3f492b227

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2016.05.006

2018-05-26

0278-4343

Continental Shelf Research, 124, 49-62

Accepted author manuscript

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2016 Fernando P. Andutta, Fernanda Helfer, Luiz Bruner de Miranda, E.L.C. Deleersnijder, Christopher Thomas, Charles Lemckert