The energy budget under the influence of topography in the Zhujiang River Estuary in China
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The energy budget under the influence of topography in the Zhujiang River Estuary in China LIU Huan1,2,3, WU Chaoyu2*, WU Yaju4 1
School of Marine Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China Research Center of Coastal Ocean Science and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China 3 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China 4 Pearl River Hydraulic Research Institute, Pearl River Water Resources Commission, Guangzhou 510611, China 2
Received 17 October 2013; accepted 8 October 2014 ©The Chinese Society of Oceanography and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract The Zhujiang River (Pearl River) Estuary (ZRE) is a very complicated and large-scale estuarine system in China. It consists of two parts: the river networks and the estuarine bays. Not only is the network system one of the most complicated in the world, but also each estuarine bay has a very special morphodynamic feature due to the geological settings. Morphological boundary conditions have direct effects on the energy dissipation and balance. On the basis of a three-dimensional (3-D) barotropic model whose domain includes the river networks and the estuarine bays, the energy budget is discussed under the influence of topography in the ZRE. The elevation and discharge of this model are validated by the observations collected in July 1999 and February 2001. The results show that (1) the source of energy in the ZRE is mainly generated by tides and river runoffs, which have an obvious seasonal change, and (2) there are some typical hotspots where the energy dissipation is 1–2 orders higher than those in the immediate upstream and downstream sections in the ZRE. These hotspots are linked with the small-scale dynamic structures (SSDS) and morphological units. On the basis of the characteristics of the morphology and the energy dissipation, the hotspots can be categorized into three types: the outlet of the ZRE, the meandering river, the branch and junction. Key words: three-dimensional barotropic model, energy dissipation, momentum balance, topography, Zhuijang River (Pearl River) Estuary Citation: Liu Huan, Wu Chaoyu, Wu Yaju. 2015. The energy budget under the influence of topography in the Zhujiang River Estuary in China. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 34(1): 148–158, doi: 10.1007/s13131-015-0606-y
1 Introduction Estuaries are very complicated systems subject to a variety of physical effects including tides, waves, winds, riverine flow and so on (Scarlatos, 1993). In general, the main source of the energy for estuaries comes from the astronomical tides. Particularly, it also includes the impact of runoff in the river networks. Meteorological sources such as winds are other possible sources, which are overshadowed under normal conditions owing to the constancy of the tidal action. Tides are the major source of the energy for the turbulence and the mixing in estuaries and they play an important role in the movement of dissolved and particulate mat
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