Modelling of water flows and cohesive sediment fluxes in the Humber estuary, UK

Details are given of a refined, three-dimensional, layer-integrated mathema tical model for predicting accurately the flow and cohesive sediment transp ort processes in estuarine and coastal waters. The model is applied to the Humber Estuary, UK, in order to predict the suspended cohesive sediment tra nsport fluxes, Field-measured data at a station in the Trent Falls region ( 53 degrees 42.8'N, 0 degrees 37.8'W) and Station SG13 in the plume region ( 53 degrees 35.19'N, 0 degrees 13.90'E) were used to drive the model. Compar isons between the model predictions and field-measured data at Station SG23 (53 degrees 35.71'N, 0 degrees 02.17'E) within the estuary (Hawke Anchorag e) were made. Comparisons of the suspended cohesive sediment concentrations for the numerical model results and the field data at Hawke Anchorage show ed good agreement in the regime of deposition, In the regime of erosion, th e model also gave reasonably good predictions, although the large variation in suspended sediment concentrations,with depth was not well reproduced by the numerical model. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.