Author(s): Dusan Zagar; Vanja Ramsak
Linked Author(s): Dusan Zagar
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: The Gulf of Trieste is a shallow coastal basin covering an area of about 600 km2. The average depth is 16 m and the deepest point is approximately 35 m. Until recently, the events due to strong wind have been studied using spaceaveraged wind in the area as input data for the 3D unsteady-state baroclinic hydrodynamic and transport model PCFLOW3D. During such events, dissolved pollutants are brought far away from the So? a river mouth. In addition, large quantities of sediment polluted with toxic metals and other pollutants are resuspended, transported with currents and dispersed throughout the bottom of the Gulf. Despite the small dimensions of the Gulf, the wind field is spatially non-uniform due to orographic characteristics of the coast. Wind measurements are only available in a few points at the coast; however, the Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia (EARS) provides high resolution wind forecasts, which were used in this study. The results of hydrodynamic simulations using either spatially constant or variable wind were compared to each other and to measurements at the buoy of the National Institute of Biology near the Slovenian coast. There were relatively high discrepancies in the patterns of hydrodynamic quantities, as well as in the patterns of dissolved and particulate pollutants in the vicinity of the So? a river inflow, where most of the pollutant inflow occurs. Also, suspended sediment concentrations in the bottom layer due to resuspension were slightly different when using constant or variable wind. Therefore, future studies of hydrodynamic quantities and pollutant transport in the Gulf will be performed using space and time variable wind fields in order to increase the reliability and accuracy of numerical simulations.
Year: 2010