A CASE STUDY OF HYDRODYNAMIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL MODELING OF A RE-MIGRATING INLET

Soroush Sorourian, Babak Banijamali

Abstract


The present paper tackles morphological modeling of a rare case of a re-migrating inlet to be used as the basis of a fishery port site selection study. The Tang inlet, located on the south-eastern shores of Iran, has so far been experiencing a cyclic migration with a return period of approximately a decade. In order to grasp the essence of the morphological behavior of the inlet, a two-fold site monitoring campaign was performed, consisting of a shoreline evolution study using aerial & satellite imagery for the outside of the bay as well as a sedimentation pattern comparison based on past hydrographical survey results for the inside of the bay utilizing ArcGIS software. Subsequently, numerical modeling of the inlet comprising of nearshore wave transformation, tidal regime of the bay, one-line coastline evolution and two-dimensional sediment transport within the bay was carried out utilizing MIKE 21 package. Ebb channel switching from a westerly to an easterly orientation is deemed to occur due to self-suffocation as a result of the presence of an existing offshore rock formation, as well as the salient making potential of the rock system. On the other hand, the closure of the east-facing channel is mainly attributed to diffraction currents due to Monsoon southerly waves helped by sedimentation load from inside the bay system due to floods & ebb currents.

References


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