Sedimentation

Sedimentation in aquatic environments resulting from human activities can have significant impacts on water quality, ecosystem health, and coastal sustainability. Major sources of anthropogenic sediment include domestic wastewater discharges, dredging operations, bottom trawling, coastal land clearing, industrial effluent, coastal and offshore construction, agricultural land development near the coastline, shipping activities, and sediment transported by rivers due to human activities throughout the watershed. Excessive sedimentation can cause numerous adverse environmental and economic impacts, including mortality of marine organisms, loss of biodiversity, navigation hazards caused by channel shoaling, degradation or loss of critical habitats, declines in natural seafood resources, changes in sediment grain-size distribution, increased water turbidity, and alterations to seabed bathymetry.

These adverse impacts can be significantly reduced through the application of advanced numerical modeling. Modeling technologies provide a scientific framework for identifying sediment sources associated with human activities and evaluating their relative contributions to sediment loading in coastal waters. Simulations of sediment transport and hydrodynamic circulation enable the identification of sediment pathways, deposition zones, and areas vulnerable to excessive sediment accumulation. Numerical models can also evaluate multiple sediment discharge scenarios by simulating the transport and fate of sediments entering aquatic environments under varying environmental conditions. These scenario-based assessments provide decision-makers with valuable information regarding the potential environmental consequences of future developments. Modeling scenarios are typically developed according to the magnitude, frequency, and intensity of human activities that generate sediments as point-source inputs.

Typical applications of numerical modeling for sedimentation studies include: