Author(s): Wen-Cheng Liu; Wei-Bo Chen
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Lead transport; Hydrodynamics; Suspended sediment
Abstract: Heavy metal pollution in estuaries and its impact on aquatic ecosystems is a dynamic process. Assessing its impact on whole ecosystems is a multidisciplinary scientific problem, and this multidisciplinary aspect poses a major challenge to the understanding of heavy metal pollution. Contaminant models are dependent on hydrodynamic models and sediment transport models because heavy metals and toxic chemicals can preferentially absorb and desorb from solids in water columns and sediment beds. In the present study, a vertical, two-dimensional heavy metal (lead) transport model incorporated into the hydrodynamic and sediment transport modules was developed to simulate the heavy metal (lead) concentration in the tidal Keelung River estuary of northern Taiwan. We validated the model with measured data, including suspended sediment and heavy metal (lead) concentration, obtained in 1998. The simulated results of dissolved, particulate, and total lead concentrations agreed well with the measured data. A model sensitivity analysis shows that the partition coefficient plays an important role in the distribution of dissolved and particulate lead concentrations along the tidal Keelung River estuary.
Year: 2016