| Summary: | Characterization of Submarine Groundwater Discharge (hereafter referred to as SGD) and the development of empirical mathematical models and forecasting tools for the quantification of SGD in Baffin Bay, Texas is a critical ecological need. In areas like Baffin Bay, Texas, the quantification of the net water discharge had not taken place due to the remoteness and lack of attention, but never the less, these areas are still particularly sensitive to the availability of freshwater resources. The focus of this dissertation is centered on new and innovative methods to evaluate net groundwater discharge into the Baffin Bay, Texas. Previous studies have indicated that approximately “10 to 55 % of the total flux of freshwater into bays and estuaries are from SGD” (Burnett et al., 2001; Cable et al., 1996; Paulsen et al., 2001; Taniguchi et al., 2006). Therefore, if the net fresh groundwater input is not accounted for this could lead environmental engineers in the wrong direction to incorrectly account for only a fraction of the total freshwater inflows. The materials and methods in this study included the implementation of a custom ultrasonic flowmeter apparatus capable of flow measurements at the minute timescale in both the forward and reverse directions placed under the surf of Baffin Bay, Texas. SGD data was downloaded and separated into fractions of freshwater and saltwater to determine the amount of freshwater entering Baffin Bay, Texas. Overall, temporal and spatial variations were observed intra-day as well as seasonally (e.g. intra-year) to characterize SGD at Baffin Bay Texas. The results indicated that the SGD at Baffin Bay, Texas is predominantly marine recirculated seawater, due to wave setups at Baffin Bay Texas, with approximately 25% of the SGD attributable to terrestrial freshwater. This initial and preliminary result discovered early on in the study lead to the development of models based on marine-ward based correlations between SGD relationships with water levels, barometric pressures, wind speeds, ...
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