A MULTI-MODEL APPROACH TO OVERCOMING DATA LIMITATIONS IN ESTUARINE HYDRODYNAMICS ANALYSIS

Código

XXV-SBRH0948

Autores

Larissa Maia Dantas da Silva, Lidiane dos Santos Lima, Paulo César Colonna Rosman

Tema

08 - Engenharia Costeira e Portuária

Resumo

Estuaries, characterized by their high productivity and susceptibility to anthropogenic activities, are coastal water bodies that experience measurable dilution with seawater. Hydrodynamic modeling of estuaries requires several boundary conditions, such as river discharge data, which can be scarce, particularly in Northeastern Brazil. To overcome these data limitations this study presents a method that utilizes hydrological models, specifically the SWAT model, to estimate river flow and provide boundary conditions for a hydrodynamic and a Eulerian transport model from SisBaHiA. The study focuses on the Paraiba do Norte River Estuary: a bar-built estuary situated in the Lower Paraíba region of the Paraíba do Norte River Watershed. In addition to hydrodynamics analysis, this study examines the simulation of saline intrusion under river Flood and Drought scenarios. The results indicate that the SWAT model effectively characterizes seasonal river flows and demonstrates good performance metrics. The hydrodynamic analysis reveals that both tidal wave variations and local seasonality play a significant influence on current velocities, with higher intensities observed during flood periods. Furthermore, tidal forces, rather than river discharges, play a significant role in flooding and drying cycles within estuarine mangrove forests. Salinity intrusion results highlighting the influence of tidal elevation on the salinity variations and shown that are seasonal differences in the magnitude of saline intrusions under Flood and Drought Scenarios.