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Modeling diagnosis of suspended sediment transport in tidal estuarine system

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

A three-dimensional, time-dependent hydrodynamic and suspended sediment transport model was performed and applied to the Danshuei River estuarine system and adjacent coastal sea in northern Taiwan. The model was validated with observed time-series salinity in 2001, and with salinity and suspended sediment distributions in 2002. The predicted results quantitatively agreed with the measured data. A local turbidity maximum was found in the bottom water of the Kuan-Du station. The validated model then was conducted with no salinity gradient, no sediment supply from the sediment bed, wind stress, and different freshwater discharges from upstream boundaries to comprehend the influences on suspended sediment dynamics in the Danshuei River estuarine system. The results reveal that concentrations of the turbidity maximum simulated without salinity gradient are higher than those of the turbidity maximum simulated with salinity gradient at the Kuan-Du station. Without bottom resuspension process, the estuarine turbidity maximum zone at the Kuan-Du station vanishes. This suggests that bottom sediment resuspension is a very important sediment source to the formation of estuarine turbidity maximum. The wind stress with northeast and southwest directions may contribute to decrease the suspended sediment concentration. When the freshwater discharges increase at the upstream boundaries, the limits of salt intrusion pushes downriver toward river mouth. Suspended sediment concentrations increase at the upriver reaches in the Danshuei River to Tahan Stream, while decrease at Kuan-Du station.

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Acknowledgments

The project, under which this study was conducted, was supported by the National Science Council in Taiwan, under grant numbers NSC 95-2211-E-239-010. The financial support is highly appreciated. The authors thank the Taiwan Water Resources Agency for providing the observational data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Disaster Prevention Engineering, National United University, Miao-Li, 36003, Taiwan

    Wen-Cheng Liu & Nobuaki Kimura

  2. Taiwan Ocean Research Institute, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taipei, 106, Taiwan

    Chun-Hsien Lee

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Chin H. Wu

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  1. Wen-Cheng Liu
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  2. Chun-Hsien Lee
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Correspondence to Wen-Cheng Liu.

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Liu, WC., Lee, CH., Wu, C.H. et al. Modeling diagnosis of suspended sediment transport in tidal estuarine system. Environ Geol 57, 1661–1673 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1448-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1448-0

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