Author(s): N. H. Duc; T. Shintani; M. Umeyama
Linked Author(s): Duc Nguyen Hoang
Keywords: Freshwater-discharge discharge distribution; Salt intrusion; Red River system (RRS)
Abstract: The freshwater discharge and tidal range are important factors for estimating the intrusion length and salt-concentration distribution for rivers. Observing discharge is difficult for a complex system like the Red River system (RRS) that consists of many branches. Thus, this study determines the discharge distribution in the multi-estuary branches of the RRS using Savenije's salt-intrusion model. To compute the freshwater discharge, we use a series of salinity and tidal data acquired in the dry season of 2006. We obtain reasonable results for the discharge in the neap tidal phases, whereas, in the spring tidal phases, the results of the model deviate from the empirical discharge data. It appears that the fraction of discharge distributed into each branch is nearly constant at high water level and low water level for the spring and neap tides. Savenije's model is a useful tool to compute the discharge distribution for estuarine systems with multi-estuary branches.
Year: 2011