WATER MOVEMENT STUDIES REQUIRED FOR PORT PLANNING

Abstract

Some of the factors involved in the design of a programme of measurement and analysis of current, temperature and salinity data, required for the environmental assessment of an estuarine port, are considered in the context of a study carried out in the Port of Melbourne, Australia. The study was undertaken as part of the Port of Melbourne Environmental Study, 6 Webb Dock Marine Study which was aimed at assessing the present regime and the effects on the marine and coastal environments resulting from the construction of Berth 6, Webb Dock in Hobsons Bay (Figure 1). To this end, integrated investigations of water movement, water quality, coastal processes and marine ecology were conducted. Although the results presented in this paper are specific to Hobsons Bay, the approach taken is of general applicability to the environmental assessment of proposed physical changes in complex estuaries and embayments. In such cases, the prediction of changed patterns of currents and density structure is a key element in assessing likely changes in other environmental factors such as water quality and the biota. In general, an environmental study of water movement in an estuary will involve some measurements of the existing conditions of current, temperature and salinity, followed by appropriate analyses of these data to enable the likely changes to be predicted.