A study on siltation in access channel to a port

This paper presents a study of the siltation process in an access channel t o a port through analysis of environmental data, viz. waves, tidal currents , sediment characteristics, silt concentration and siltation at site. A rat ional methodology has been presented to co-relate environmental data and si ltation quantity, judiciously applying the various theories available to wa ve propagation, littoral current, sediment transport and its trapping. The efficacy of the method is then tested to simulate the observed siltation in different phases of its development in terms of widening and deepening of the channel. It is observed that estimation of the representative environme ntal parameters is very important as the data collected over a long period show wide variation since sediment transport formulae available are very se nsitive to these parameters. An attempt has been made in this paper to unde rstand the mechanism of siltation in the approach channel to the port. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.