Abstract:
Many estuaries are observed to change, with respect to their hydrodynamics, turbidity dynamics and their ecological functioning. Typically, during the past decades tidal range and turbidity increased, whilst oxygen levels and phytoplankton concentrations decreased. It is often argued that these changes are the result of human interventions (for example, deepening, construction of barriers and side-walls). However, at the same time also changes in the climate affect estuarine dynamics. In this presentation, a systematic analysis will be presented of the effect of anthropogenic measures and sea level rise on tidal motion and turbidity in estuaries. For this, both field data and a semi-analytical model will be used, where the latter provides insight into the basic mechanisms that control the dynamics. The model will be applied to the Guadalquivir estuary (Spain) and two German estuaries (Ems and Elbe). The results will be used to discuss new ideas on how estuaries could be managed.
Personal webpage: http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~swart104/
