salt intrusion
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2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qianqian Liu ◽  
Huijie Xue ◽  
Fei Chai ◽  
Zhengui Wang ◽  
Yi Chao ◽  
...  

Previous studies suggest importance of wind forcing on salt intrusion length and salt flux in river-dominated microtidal estuaries (with tidal range < 2 m). In this study, we investigate the role of wind forcing on salt intrusion in a mesotidal estuary, San Francisco Bay (SFB), with tidal ranges between 2 m and 4 m, through an open-source model of high transferability, the Semi-implicit Cross-scale Hydroscience Integrated System Model (SCHISM). Meanwhile, we investigate circulation and salinity variation of San Francisco Bay. The model’s performance in hydrodynamics at tidal, spring/neap and seasonal time scales is validated through model-observation comparisons. Through realistically forced and process-oriented experiments, we demonstrate that spring/neap tides can cause fortnightly variations in salinity and currents by modulating vertical mixing and stratification; and seasonal variability of circulation in North Bay is determined by change of river discharge and modified by winds, while in South Bay it is dominated by wind-driven flows. Furthermore, we revealed the role of wind on X2 (the distance from the Golden Gate Bridge to the 2-PSU isohaline at the bottom). The model results show that X2 is primarily influenced by river flow and proportional to river flow to the ¼ power. Meanwhile, wind plays a secondary role in modifying X2 by increasing X2 from 0 to 5 km during low discharge period, while spring/neap tide modulation on X2 is negligible but important for salt balance in sub-regions downstream of X2.


MAUSAM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-654
Author(s):  
NOOR AHMED KALHORO ◽  
ZHIGUO HE ◽  
DONGFENG XU ◽  
ASIF INAM ◽  
FAIZ MUHAMMAD ◽  
...  

Field investigations were conducted to study spatial and temporal (seasonal) variations in meteorological, hydrodynamic and hydrological variables in Indus River Estuary. The investigations were undertaken during wet, (moderate fluvial discharge), flood (highest fluvial discharge) and dry (zero fluvial discharge) seasons to obtain surface and near bed data during flood and ebb tides. Tides were semidiurnal, showing an asymmetric pattern with longer ebb tides and shorter flood tides. The hydrodynamic data revealed strong seasonal variation, the ebb velocities were significantly higher than flood current velocities during wet season, whereas a slight difference was found in current velocities during dry season, while the ebb phase lasted longer than flood during wet season; however no significant difference was observed during dry season. On the other hand during flood period the water currents were substantially higher and unidirectional related to the strong river flow. Turbidity values were considerably higher during flood season, than wet and dry seasons along the channel. However hydrological parameters such as temperature and dissolved Oxygen also revealed seasonal and spatial fluctuations, though they were within permissible range. The salinity distribution along the channel was related to the incoming river flow and tidal propagation. Higher salinity values were recorded in dry season, suggested that salinity variation at Estuary was due to salt intrusion from the North Arabian Sea, related to the absent of fluvial discharge form Indus River. Present study revealed substantial changes for hydrology and hydrodynamic conditions of the Indus River Estuary, related to the varying Indus River flow, as well as winds are another important atmospheric force in this region which enhanced the tidal forcing during southwest monsoon.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 69-86
Author(s):  
Alaa Abdula Ali ◽  
Hayder A Al Thamiry

Shatt Al-Arab River in Al Basrah, Iraq, has recently recorded massive levels of TDS values (Total Dissolved Solids) in the water as a result of reduced fresh water discharge from sources, causing the river to become salinized due to salt wedge intrusion. Therefore, a block dam in the south reach is required to salt intrusion prevention. The main objective of this research is to simulate the hydraulic impact of a suggested barrage in Ras Al Besha on the Shatt Al-Arab River. The HEC-RAS (5.0.7) model was used to develop a one-dimensional unsteady model to gaining an understanding of the proposed barrage's influence on river behaviour. The daily discharges of the Tigris River provided as the upstream boundary conditions, while the hourly water levels of the Shatt Al-Arab River provided as the downstream boundary conditions. The model was initially run on the basis of daily discharges in Aug 2018 and March 2020 for the model's calibration and verification. Then, a model was run with a proposed barrage, Four cases of discharge were chosen which were the low and moderate discharge that equal to (20-50-100 and 250) m3/s with adopted spring tide cycle. The operation scenarios were examined under the influence of three cases of barrage gates (fully opened, 50% open and programmed opening). The results indicate that the investigated discharges will cause a significant problems in navigation depths, especially in the case of the programming of gates opening where the stages drop range between 2.01-3.3m comparing with the normal case. Furthermore, the velocity indicators show that the significant reduction in velocity upstream the barrage led to more sedimentation in the river reach.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 953-976
Author(s):  
Sepehr Eslami ◽  
Piet Hoekstra ◽  
Herman W. J. Kernkamp ◽  
Nam Nguyen Trung ◽  
Dung Do Duc ◽  
...  

Abstract. On the list of challenges facing the world largest deltas, increased saline water intrusion (SWI) in the surface water system and its role in jeopardizing freshwater supply are often ranked very high. Yet, detailed process-based studies of SWI at the whole delta scale are limited, and the trends are regularly associated with global sea level rise. Here, using field measurements and a sophisticated 3D model that integrates the riverine, rural, estuarine, and coastal dynamics within one numerical domain, we study SWI at the scale of the Mekong Delta in extensive detail. While many studies downscale the SWI problem to a topic within an estuary, we show that the physical processes on the continental shelf, such as monsoon-driven ocean surge, directly influence salinity dynamics within the delta. Typical values of 20–40 cm surge over the continental shelf contribute to up to 10 km of further SWI. The delta's estuarine system is also more sensitive than many other systems to variations of river discharge. Furthermore, spring–neap variability plays a key role in SWI in the delta. The estuarine variability from a stratified to a mixed system between neap and spring tides develops 3D processes such as estuarine circulation and tidal straining that become the main upstream salt transport mechanisms. The 3D nature of salinity dynamics, and the role of upstream and downstream processes, suggests that compromising on dimension or extent of the numerical domain can limit the accuracy of predictions of SWI in the delta. The study also showcases the fact that riverbed incision in response to anthropogenic sediment starvation in the last 2 decades has increased stratification and activated or magnified 3D salt transport subprocesses that amplify upstream salt transport. With all the external forces on the delta, namely climate change and an altered hydrological regime by the upstream dams, due to deeper estuarine channels (driven by sand mining and upstream impoundments) compared to its near past, the delta itself has become far more vulnerable to even mild natural events. This exemplifies the fundamental importance of preserving the sediment budget and riverbed levels in protecting the world's deltas against SWI.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Gruel ◽  
Edward Park ◽  
Loc Ho ◽  
Sameh Kantoush ◽  
Lian Feng ◽  
...  

The river beds of the Mekong Delta are some of the most intensively sand mined places in the world, however sand mining budgets are limited to rough and indirect estimates. Here, we provide a systematic, semi-physically based estimation of the Mekong Delta’s sand mining budget. We provide a quantified budget that overcomes limitations resulting from previous reliance on officially declared statistics and bathymetric surveys of short channel reaches. We apply Sentinel-1 radar imagery to monitor the distribution of sand mining activities using boat metrics-driven mining intensity maps correlated with a field-based bathymetry difference map derived from two extensive bathymetric surveys of ~100 km reaches in the Tiền River conducted in 2014 and 2017 that cover ~15% of the Mekong Delta. We then extrapolate the Tiền River findings to the broader Vietnamese Mekong Delta from 2015 to 2020 and measure a continuous increase of the extraction budget by ~25% between 2015 (38 Mm3/yr) and 2020 (47 Mm3/yr). We estimate a total sand mining budget of 254 Mm3 during the 6-year study period with an average annual rate of ~42 Mm3. Our semi-physically based annual rate differs from both official declarations provided and estimates from previous studies implying that a substantial portion of sand mining budget remains unaccounted for. Riverbed sand mining remains key threat to the Mekong Delta as it exacerbates or contributes to a multitude of other threats including dam construction effects on sedimentation, ongoing subsidence, sea level rise and recurring salt intrusion. This integrated study offers a new method that is readily implementable elsewhere to allow for extensive monitoring and quantification of sand mining activities that are vital for assessing future projections on environmental impacts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sepehr Eslami ◽  
Piet Hoekstra ◽  
Philip S. J. Minderhoud ◽  
Nam Nguyen Trung ◽  
Jannis M. Hoch ◽  
...  

AbstractRising temperatures, rapid urbanization and soaring demand for natural resources threaten deltas worldwide and make them vulnerable to rising seas, subsidence, droughts, floods, and salt intrusion. However, climate change projections in deltas often address climate-driven stressors in isolation and disregard parallel anthropogenic processes, leading to insufficient socio-political drive. Here, using a combination of process-based numerical models that integrate both climatic and anthropogenic environmental stressors, we project salt intrusion within the Mekong mega-Delta, in the next three decades. We assess the relative effects of various drivers and show that anthropogenic forces such as groundwater extraction-induced subsidence and riverbed level incisions due to sediment starvation can increase the salinity-affected areas by 10–27% compared to the present-day situation, while future sea level rise adds another 6–19% increase. These projections provide crucial input for adaptation policy development in the Mekong Delta and the methodology inspires future systemic studies of environmental changes in other deltas.


Resources ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Glauco Gallotti ◽  
Marco Antonio Santo ◽  
Ilektra Apostolidou ◽  
Jacopo Alessandri ◽  
Alberto Armigliato ◽  
...  

The adoption of Nature-Based Solutions (NBSs) represents a novel means to mitigate natural hazards. In the framework of the OPERANDUM project, this study introduces a methodology to assess the efficiency of the NBSs and a series of Open-Air Laboratories (OALs) regarded as a proof-of-concept for the wider uptake of NBSs. The OALs are located in Finland, Greece, UK, Italy, and Ireland. The methodology is based on a wide modeling activity, incorporated in the context of future climate scenarios. Herein, we present a series of models’ chains able to estimate the efficiency of the NBSs. While the presented models are mainly well-established, their coupling represents a first fundamental step in the study of the long-term efficacy and impact of the NBSs. In the selected sites, NBSs are utilized to cope with distinct natural hazards: floods, droughts, landslides, salt intrusion, and nutrient and sediment loading. The study of the efficacy of NBSs to mitigate these hazards belongs to a series of works devoted to the implementation of NBSs for environmental purposes. Our findings prove that land management plays a crucial role in the process. Specifically, the selected NBSs include intensive forestry; the conversion of urban areas to grassland; dunes; marine seagrass; water retention ponds; live cribwalls; and high-density plantations of woody vegetation and deep-rooted herbaceous vegetation. The management of natural resources should eventually consider the effect of NBSs on urban and rural areas, as their employment is becoming widespread.


Author(s):  
Lara Mills ◽  
João Janeiro ◽  
Flávio Martins

Abstract Sea level rise is a worldwide concern as a high percentage of the population accommodates coastal areas. The focus of this study is the impact of sea level rise in the Guadiana Estuary, an estuary in the Iberian Peninsula formed at the interface of the Guadiana River and the Gulf of Cadiz. Estuaries will be impacted by sea level rise as these transitional environments host highly diverse and complex marine ecosystems. The major consequences of sea level rise are the intrusion of salt from the sea into fresh water and an increase in flooding area. As the physical, chemical, and biological components of estuaries are sensitive to changes in salinity, the purpose of this study is to further evaluate salt intrusion in the Guadiana Estuary caused by sea level rise. Hydrodynamics of the Guadiana Estuary were simulated in a two-dimensional numerical model with the MOHID water modeling system. A previously developed hydrodynamic model was implemented to further examine changes in salinity distribution in the estuary in response to sea level rise. Varying tidal amplitudes, freshwater discharge from the Guadiana River and bathymetries of the estuary were incorporated in the model to fully evaluate the impacts of sea level rise on salinity distribution and flooding areas of the estuary. Results show an overall increase in salinity and land inundation in the estuary in response to sea level rise.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujuan Sun ◽  
Lucy Bricheno ◽  
Kevin Horsburgh

&lt;p&gt;The annual mean combined river discharge from the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) riverine system is 100,000 &amp;#8211; 140,000 m&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;/s (EGIS 2000), draining to Bay of Bengal, covering 83% of total area of Bangladesh, and making Bangladesh delta more vulnerable to both the freshwater and the mixing with sea water. This estuarine environment varies spatially and temporally, over all multiple time scales, due to its funnel-shaped vast river networks, strong tides, and saltwater intrusion. Recent studies reported a drastic salinity increasing at the end of the dry season in the past 20 years (Murshed et al., 2019). Significant salinity intrusion appears from the Sundarbans (over 20ppt in 2015), and then extends inland, which makes salinity a key factor for changing land use and demographic migration.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We examine volume and salt flux transports at multi-river channels where the GBM drains to the Bay of Bengal, using our unstructured-grid Bangladesh-FVCOM model (Bricheno et al., 2016). This realistic simulation of the whole delta has been shown to reproduce the present-day river flow circulation, tidal dynamics, and salinity stratification.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We then summarise results from the detailed hydrodynamic numerical model into a simplified flow budget, to summarise the climate impacts on salt-intrusion in the delta. In this way, we can investigate the mechanism of salt flux transports in Bangladesh delta, and improve our understanding of the controlling processes driving salinity intrusion in this region.&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sepehr Eslami ◽  
Maarten van der Vegt ◽  
Philip Minderhoud ◽  
Nam Nguyen Trung ◽  
Jannis Hoch ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;In the context of global rising temperatures, rapid urbanization and excessive demand for natural resources (e.g., freshwater and sand) stress the livelihood of the world deltas. Sea Level Rise, land subsidence, discharge anomalies, floods, drought, and salt intrusion are common challenges facing these ecologically essential and economically crucial coastal landscapes. Climate change projections in deltas regularly isolate climate-driven stressors and disregard anthropogenic environmental drivers. This often leads to insufficient socio-political drive at times when the short window of opportunity to save the world&amp;#8217;s largest deltas is closing. Here, by integrating both climatic and anthropogenic drivers of exposure and vulnerability, we project salt intrusion within the Mekong mega-Delta for the next three decades. Leveraging modern numerical codes and computation capacity, by applying a high-resolution 3D model we capture the 3D dynamics of saline water intrusion, and by covering the entire delta (from 400 km upstream to 70 km offshore) we eliminate/minimize the boundary effects at the areas of interest. We differentiate the relative effects of various drivers and demonstrate that while sea level rise can increase areas affected by salinity by 5-19%, anthropogenic drivers such as extraction-induced subsidence and riverbed level incisions due to sediment starvation can further amplify that by additional 10-27%. The results are crucial input for climate adaptation policy development in the Mekong Delta and provides a blueprint for systemic assessment of environmental changes and developing environmental pathways at scale of a delta.&lt;/p&gt;


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