Abstract |
The evaluation and preservation of estuarine resources places a major emphasis on the capability to analyze transport processes in tidal waters. These processes summarily include diffusion, dispersion and differential convective transport of both reactive and non-reactive substances. A numerical model for computing time histories of tidal amplitudes and vertically integrated velocities in two coordinate (area-wise) directions is described. The model accounts for irregular bathymetry, bottom roughness, spoil banks, reefs and islands and for variable inflows, tidal action and other hydrologic features typical of Gulf Coast embayments. From the basic model responses, it is possible to compute phase relations, times of flood, ebb and slack tide, tidal prisms, exchange, net flows, and to obtain plots of particle paths and velocity vector diagrams at any phase of the tide. (Author) |