Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Publication Date
2014
Journal
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Volume
2
Issue
2
First Page
336
Last Page
369
Abstract
Numerical models can complement observations in investigations of marine sediment transport and depositional processes. A coupled hydrodynamic and sediment transport model was implemented for the Waipaoa River continental shelf offshore of the North Island of New Zealand, to complement a 13-month field campaign that collected seabed and hydrodynamic measurements. This paper described the formulations used within the model, and analyzed the sensitivity of sediment flux estimates to model nesting and seabed erodibility. Calculations were based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System—Community Sediment Transport Modeling System (ROMS-CSTMS), a primitive equation model using a finite difference solution to the equations for momentum and water mass conservation, and transport of salinity, temperature, and multiple classes of suspended sediment. The three-dimensional model resolved the complex bathymetry, bottom boundary layer, and river plume that impact sediment dispersal on this shelf, and accounted for processes including fluvial input, winds, waves, tides, and sediment resuspension. Nesting within a larger-scale, lower resolution hydrodynamic model stabilized model behavior during river floods and allowed large-scale shelf currents to impact sediment dispersal. To better represent observations showing that sediment erodibility decreased away from the river mouth, the seabed erosion rate parameter was reduced with water depth. This allowed the model to account for the observed spatial pattern of erodibility, though the model held the critical shear stress for erosion constant. Although the model neglected consolidation and swelling processes, use of a spatially-varying erodibility parameter significantly increased export of fluvial sediment from Poverty Bay to deeper areas of the shelf.
DOI
10.3390/jmse2020336
Keywords
numerical modeling; sediment transport; erodibility; model nesting; Waipaoa shelf; New Zealand
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Moriarty, Julia M.; Harris, Courtney K.; and Hadfield, Mark G., A Hydrodynamic and Sediment Transport Model for the Waipaoa Shelf, New Zealand: Sensitivity of Fluxes to Spatially-Varying Erodibility and Model Nesting (2014). Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 2(2), 336-369.
10.3390/jmse2020336
