Geomorphological Modelling in Coastal and Estuarine Waters

Details are given herein of the development and application of a three-dimensional layer integrated model to predict geomorphological changes in estuarine and coastal waters. Alternating Direction Implicit finite difference scheme has been used for solving governing differential equations, which include the conservation of mass and momentum for flow, the transport equation for suspended ediment fluxes and mass conservation for bed level changes. Model predictions have been compared with laboratory measurements. A new criteria for the initiation of motion has been used based on the unsteady tidal flow. Finally model has been applied to predict bed level changes due to suspended sediment fluxes in the Humber Estuary, UK.

Keywords:

Geomorphological modelling , Tidal basins , hydrodynamics , Sediment trandport , bed level changes , initiation of motion , unsteady criteria