Modeling impact of culture facilities on hydrodynamics and solute transport in marine aquaculture waters of North Yellow Sea

An increasing number of marine aquaculture facilities have been placed in shallow bays and open sea,which might significantly affect hydrodynamic and solute transport processes in marine aquaculture waters.In this study,a coupled hydrodynamic and solute transport model was developed with high-resolution schemes in marine aquaculture waters based on depth-averaged shallow water equations.A new expression of drag force was incorporated into the momentum equations to express the resistance of suspended culture cages.The coupled model was used to simulate the effect of suspended structures on tidal currents and the movement of a contaminant cloud in the marine aquaculture of the North Yellow Sea,China.The simulation results showed a low-velocity area appearing inside the aquaculture cage area,with a maximum reduction rate of velocity close to 45%under high-density culture.The results also showed that tidal currents were sensitive to the density of suspended cages,the length of cages,and the drag coefficients of cages.The transport processes of pollutants inside aquaculture facilities were inhibited away from the vicinity of the culture cage area because of the diminished tidal currents.Therefore,the suspended cages significantly affected the transport processes of pollutants in the coastal aquaculture waters.Furthermore,the reduced horizontal velocity significantly decreased the food supply for the aquaculture areas from the surrounding sea.

A numerical study of hydrodynamic characteristics and hydrological processes in the coastal wetlands during extreme events

Providing accurate predictions of extreme water levels through numerical simulation has become essential for disaster prevention and damage mitigation in coastal wetland areas.This study applies the FVCOM model to simulate storm surges caused by several typhoons in the Bohai Sea and the North Huanghai Sea.The vegetation drag force caused by salt marsh plants is inserted into the FVCOM model for model improvement with vegetation effect by integrating RS and GIS technologies.A parametric typhoon model is coupled with background wind fields derived to acquire the spatio-temporal variations of wind and pressure fields in the computational domain.The simulation results reproduce the extreme storm surges induced by typhoon events very well.The modeling results are compared by validating with literature results to examine the effect of vegetation on tidal waves in tidal mud flats.Moreover,the coupled model is also applied to explore storm surge attenuation and land intrusion during Typhoon Winnie in the wetlands of the Liao River Estuary.The simulation results indicate that salt marsh plants can reduce the flow current with little impact on tide flooding/ebbing in vegetated regions.Furthermore,the results show that typhoon presence increases the inundation depth and extendes the flood time in the tidal wetlands of the study region.The FVCOM model incorporating the method with vegetation drag force can provide new insights to understand the comprehensive impact of tidal wetland plants on hydrodynamic characteristics in the Bohai Sea and other waters,hence presents a more accurate quantification of the hydrological process of storm surge in the tidal wetlands.