Author(s): Reza Valipour; Luis F. Leon; Ram Yerubandi; Natalia Demchenko; Craig Mccrimmon
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: River intrusion; Great lakes; Lake erie; Grand river
Abstract: The Laurentian Great Lakes, one of the largest fresh water systems in the world, is surrounded by a population of some 30 million people, and provide vital services such as drinking and industrial water supply, waste disposal, and recreational opportunity. Considerable success has been attained in protecting and improving the environmental conditions in the Great Lakes, still Lake Erie continues to exhibit large algal blooms and recurrent hypoxic conditions caused by a combination of favoring weather and excessive nutrient loadings into the lake. The Grand River is the largest river in southern Ontario and feeds Lake Erie with water, sediment and nutrients. Surface transport processes and the propagation speed of river plumes affect the fate of pollutants in the nearshore regions. Field observations and numerical experiments from a 3D high resolution model of the Grand River discharge plume in the nearshore zones of Lake Erie are discussed, in order to describe its spatial variability and behavior under different wind forcing conditions and flow discharges. Under high flow conditions, which carry most of the loads into the lake, a well-marked frontal region with variable density in the vicinity of the river mouth, caused the plume to discharge into the lake mostly in the mid-depths (negative buoyant) and surface layers (positive buoyant). During low flow conditions, the wind-driven buoyant riverine plume is transported parallel to the shore usually exhibiting a continuous band of turbid water which spreads up and down along the coast.
Year: 2016