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

Journal article (2016)

Authors

Fernando P. Andutta Universidade de São Paulo, Griffith University
Fernanda Helfer Griffith University
Luiz Bruner de Miranda Universidade de São Paulo
E.L.C. Deleersnijder Mathematical Physics - EEMCS , Université Catholique de Louvain
Christopher J. Thomas Université Catholique de Louvain
Charles Lemckert Griffith University
Research Group
Mathematical Physics (EEMCS) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2016 Fernando P. Andutta, Fernanda Helfer, Luiz Bruner de Miranda, E.L.C. Deleersnijder, Christopher Thomas, Charles Lemckert
DOI
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2016.05.006
Hydrodynamics Numerical model Residence time Exposure time Return coefficient Tropical estuary
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Published Date

2016

Language

English

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Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Department

Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics

Research Group

Mathematical Physics

Abstract

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).