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SIMULATING LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN AND MISSISSIPPI RIVER OUTFLOW AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA
Citation:
FRICK, W. E., T. KHANGAONKAR, H. LIU, AND Z. YANG. SIMULATING LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN AND MISSISSIPPI RIVER OUTFLOW AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA. Presented at Air & Waste Management Association's 99th Annual Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, LA, June 20 - 23, 2006.
Impact/Purpose:
A main objective of this task is to combine empirical and physical mechanisms in a model, known as Visual Beach, that
- is user-friendly
- includes point and non-point sources of contamination
- includes the latest bacterial decay mechanisms
- incorporates real-time and web-based ambient and atmospheric and aquatic conditions
- and has a predictive capability of up to three days to help avert potential beach closures.
Description:
Hurricane Katrina was the direct cause of the flooding of New Orleans in September 2005. Between its passage and the pumping of flood waters back into Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, the flood waters acquired considerable amounts of contaminants, notably silver, but also bacteria and other pollutants. As pumping commenced there was concern about the transport of these contaminants from the mixed outfall streams into Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, and subsequent flow of the contaminated water out of the lake into Mississippi Sound and other coastal waters. The objective of this modeling effort was to develop a numerical predictive tool that could predict the transport and fate of pollutants. Such a capability could be helpful in assessing the short and long-term ecosystem impacts from the outflow of polluted water and re-suspended contaminated sediments from Lake Pontchartrain on the nearby wetlands along the coastline near the mouth of Mississippi River. The model used was Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM) using available input data.