A model of the plume front of the Pearl River Estuary, China and adjacent coastal waters in the winter dry season

Wong, Lai Ah; Chen, J.C.; Li, Dong

doi:10.1016/j.csr.2004.06.007

Cited by 50 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…It is noted that during this period, saline water will intrude far upstream, passing the Humen outlet into the Table 2 Monthly mean (tidally averaged) discharge distribution over the Pearl River outlets as resolved by the model compared with long-term annual mean values from (Zhao et al 2000) Long-term annual-mean Pearl River discharge (Zhao et al 2000) Wet season simulation results (June 1998) river network. Both processes can be explained by the low volume of freshwater discharge during the dry season and are in agreement with descriptions in Wong et al (2004) and Dong et al (2004).…”

Section: Validation Of Salinity (Transport)supporting

confidence: 84%

Coupled 1D–3D hydrodynamic modelling, with application to the Pearl River Delta

et al. 2009

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Within the hydrodynamic modelling community, it is common practice to apply different modelling systems for coastal waters and river systems. Whereas for coastal waters 3D finite difference or finite element grids are commonly used, river systems are generally modelled using 1D networks. Each of these systems is tailored towards specific applications. Three-dimensional coastal water models are designed to model the horizontal and vertical variability in coastal waters and are less well suited for representing the complex geometry and crosssectional areas of river networks. On the other hand, 1D river network models are designed to accurately represent complex river network geometries and complex structures like weirs, barrages and dams. A disadvantage, however, is that they are unable to resolve complex spatial flow variability. In real life, however, coastal oceans and rivers interact. In deltaic estuaries, both tidal intrusion of seawater into the upstream river network and river discharge into open waters play a role. This is frequently approached by modelling the systems independently, with off-line coupling of the lateral boundary forcing. This implies that the river and the coastal model run sequentially, providing lateral discharge (1D) and water level (3D) forcing to each other without the possibility of direct feedback or interaction between these processes. An additional disadvantage is that due to the time aggregation usually applied to exchanged quantities, mass conservation is difficult to ensure. In this paper, we propose an approach that couples a 3D hydrodynamic modelling system for coastal waters (Delft3D) with a 1D modelling system for river hydraulics (SOBEK) online. This implies that contrary to off-line coupling, the hydrodynamic quantities are exchanged between the 1D and 3D domains during runtime to resolve the real-time exchange and interaction between the coastal waters and river network. This allows for accurate and mass conserving modelling of complex coastal waters and river network systems, whilst the advantages of both systems are maintained and used in an optimal and computationally efficient way. The coupled 1D-3D system is used to model the flows in the Pearl River Delta (Guangdong, China), which are determined by the interaction of the upstream network of the Pearl River and the open waters of the South China Sea. The highly complex upstream river network is modelled in 1D, simulating river discharges for the dry and wet monsoon periods. The 3D coastal model simulates the flow due to the external (ocean) periodic tidal forcing, the salinity distribution for both dry and wet seasons, as well as residual water levels (sea level anomalies) originating from the South China Sea. The model is calibrated and its performance extensively assessed against field measurements, resulting in a mean root mean square (RMS) error of below 6% for water levels over the entire Pearl River Delta. The model also represents both the discharge distribution over the river network and salinity transport p...

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Section: Validation Of Salinity (Transport)supporting

confidence: 84%

Coupled 1D–3D hydrodynamic modelling, with application to the Pearl River Delta

et al. 2009

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“…Figure 5 Both images show bright strips near the river mouth, which were identified as the river plume front. The wind has a significant effect on the surface location of the plume front in the PRE (Wong et al, 2004). Wind directions derived from Hong Kong Observatory show that the downwelling-favorable wind was prevailing over the study area when the two images were acquired.…”

Section: Asar Observationmentioning

confidence: 98%

Observation of the supercritical Pearl River plume front under the downwelling-favorable winds

Bai

Luo

et al. 2015

Sci. China Earth Sci.

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For the Pearl River plume, the supercritical, distinct plume front appears in downwelling-favorable winds, which is easily observed due to the distinct boundary between the plume water and the ambient water. In this paper, in situ and satellite observations of a plume front are utilized to explore the Pearl River plume front properties under the downwelling-favorable winds. Field observations clearly show frontal structure, especially the two-layer structure in the plume water and the downward-motion of water in the frontal region. The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) images are also analyzed to unveil the plume front: there is a white stripe on the west side out of the river mouth under downwelling-favorable winds, which is identified as a supercritical plume front, and the width of the plume front is about 250 m. The normalized velocity gradient shows the intense velocity convergence in the front region. Also, analyses of ASAR images imply that the river discharge plays an important role in controlling the location and shape of the front. cruise observations, Pearl River plume front, ASAR, winds Citation:Bai P, Gu Y Z, Luo L, Zhang W L, Fan K G. 2015. Observation of the supercritical Pearl River plume front under the downwelling-favorable winds.

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“…In the Zhujiang River Estuary, the plume was described with a salinity range from 5 to 34 in winter in a modeling study (Wong et al, 2004). The area with salinity between 0.5 and 25.0 was defined as the mixing zone in another report focused on the saline water intrusion in this estuary .…”

Section: Variation Of Maximum Primary Production Zonementioning

confidence: 99%

Chemometric study of spatial variations of environmental and ecological characteristics in the Zhujiang River (Pearl River) Estuary and adjacent waters

et al. 2011

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Chemometric approach based on principal component analysis (PCA) was utilized to examine the spatial variances of environmental and ecological characteristics in the Zhujiang River (Pearl River) Estuary and adjacent waters (ZREAW) in the South China Sea. The PCA result shows that the ZREAW can be divided into different zones according to the principal components and geographical locations of the study stations, and indicates that there are distinct regional variances on environmental features and the corresponding phytoplankton biomass and community structures among different areas. The spatial distribution of ecological features was implied to be influenced by various degrees of the different water resources, such as the Pearl River discharges, the coastal current and the oceanic water from the South China Sea. The variation of the biomass maximum zone and the complex impacts on the spatial distributions of phytoplankton biomass and production were also evaluated.

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A model of the plume front of the Pearl River Estuary, China and adjacent coastal waters in the winter dry season

Cited by 50 publications

References 5 publications

Coupled 1D–3D hydrodynamic modelling, with application to the Pearl River Delta

Coupled 1D–3D hydrodynamic modelling, with application to the Pearl River Delta

Observation of the supercritical Pearl River plume front under the downwelling-favorable winds

Chemometric study of spatial variations of environmental and ecological characteristics in the Zhujiang River (Pearl River) Estuary and adjacent waters

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