scholarly journals Mechanism of Formation and Estuarine Turbidity Maxima in the Hau River Mouth

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 2547
Author(s):  
Nguyen Ngoc Tien ◽  
Dinh Van Uu ◽  
Do Huy Cuong ◽  
Le Dinh Mau ◽  
Nguyen Xuan Tung ◽  
...  

Observation of the Hau River distributary of the Mekong River delta in Vietnam, conducted in dry and flood season (2009, 2014, and 2015), is utilized to investigate the mechanism of formation, distribution of estuarine turbidity maxima (ETM), and links with sediment transport in the system. Additionally, 3D (three-dimensional) numerical models are applied to simulate the seasonal tidal variation (flood and dry seasons) of the water and suspended sediment transport processes of the Mekong River Delta. The 3D model, with a combination of hydrodynamic-wave and suspended sediment transport, was set up and validated with measured data in the study area. The mechanism that measures ETM is the process of suspended sediment from the river when it interacts with seawater and speeds up the flocculation, combined with the asymmetry of the tidal current, which will create the region with ETM by moving in/out with the tidal current’s ups and downs. As there is surface flow velocity towards the sea, the bottom baroclinic flow has a decisive role in deposition and erosion, and it causes the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) to be maximized. During the flood season, the salt wedge near the river’s mouth, at the peak of the tide, pushes towards the sea’s direction when there are ebbing tides, with a scope of about 20 km. In the dry season, there is estuary disturbance as well; the salt wedge forms, but is relatively weak or does not exist, depending on the time of the tide. The maximum turbidity zone in the flood season moves the subaqueous delta with a scope of about 20 km and SSC of about 0.1 to 0.6 g L−1, whereas in the dry season, the seawater has high salinity, and seaward SSC penetrates the estuaries to cause a disturbance and flocculation. The penetration scope is up to 50 km and creates a water mass that has high SSC, from 0.2 to 0.7 g L−1, to run in/off by the tidal current’s ups and downs for several kilometers in the tidal phase.

2021 ◽  
pp. oemed-2021-107768
Author(s):  
Dung T Phung ◽  
Joshua L Warren ◽  
Cordia Ming-Yeuk Chu ◽  
Robert Dubrow

ObjectiveTo examine the relationship between flood severity and risk of hospitalisation in the Vietnam Mekong River Delta (MRD).MethodsWe obtained data on hospitalisations and hydro-meteorological factors during 2011–2014 for seven MRD provinces. We classified each day into a flood-season exposure period: the 2011 extreme annual flood (EAF); 2012–2014 routine annual floods (RAF); dry season and non-flood wet season (reference period). We used province-specific Poisson regression models to calculate hospitalisation incidence rate ratios (IRRs). We pooled IRRs across provinces using random-effects meta-analysis.ResultsDuring the EAF, non-external cause hospitalisations increased 7.2% (95% CI 3.2% to 11.4%); infectious disease hospitalisations increased 16.4% (4.3% to 29.8%) and respiratory disease hospitalisations increased 25.5% (15.5% to 36.4%). During the RAF, respiratory disease hospitalisations increased 8.2% (3.2% to 13.5%). During the dry season, hospitalisations decreased for non-external causes and for each specific cause except injuries.ConclusionsWe observed a gradient of decreasing risk of hospitalisation from EAF to RAF/non-flood wet season to dry season. Adaptation measures should be strengthened to prepare for the increased probability of more frequent extreme floods in the future, driven by climate change.


Author(s):  
Wenwen Shen ◽  
Terry Griffiths ◽  
Mengmeng Xu ◽  
Jeremy Leggoe

For well over a decade it has been widely recognised that existing models and tools for subsea pipeline stability design fail to account for the fact that seabed soils tend to become mobile well before the onset of pipeline instability. Despite ample evidence obtained from both laboratory and field observations that sediment mobility has a key role to play in understanding pipeline/soil interaction, no models have been presented previously which account for the tripartite interaction between the fluid and the pipe, the fluid and the soil, and the pipe and the soil. There are numerous well developed and widely used theories available to model pipe-fluid and pipe-soil interactions. A challenge lies in the way to develop a satisfactory fluid-soil interaction algorithm that has the potential for broad implementation under both ambient and extreme sea conditions due to the complexity of flow in the vicinity of a seabed pipeline or cable. A widely used relationship by Shields [1] links the bedload and suspended sediment transport to the seabed shear stresses. This paper presents details of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research which has been undertaken to investigate the variation of seabed shear stresses around subsea pipelines as a parametric function of pipeline spanning/embedment, trench configuration and wave/current properties using the commercial RANS-based software ANSYS Fluent. The modelling work has been undertaken for a wide range of seabed geometries, including cases in 3D to evaluate the effects of finite span length, span depth and flow attack angle on shear stresses. These seabed shear stresses have been analysed and used as the basis for predicting sediment transport within the Pipe-Soil-Fluid (PSF) Interaction Model [2] in determining the suspended sediment concentration and the advection velocity in the vicinity of pipelines. The model has significant potential to be of use to operators who struggle with conventional stabilisation techniques for the pipelines, such as those which cross Australia’s North West Shelf, where shallow water depths, highly variable calcareous soils and extreme metocean conditions driven by frequent tropical cyclones result in the requirement for expensive and logistically challenging secondary stabilisation measures.


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