Analysis, Modeling, And Simulation Of The Tides In The Loxahatchee River Estuary (Southeastern Florida).

• Main Author: Bacopoulos, Peter
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: STARS 2006
• Subjects: Tides; Hydrodynamics; Water circulation; Two-dimensional models; Computerized simulation; Finite element method; Estuaries; Civil Engineering; Engineering; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/749; https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1748&context=etd

Recent cooperative efforts between the University of Central Florida, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the South Florida Water Management District explore the development of a two-dimensional, depth-integrated tidal model for the Loxahatchee River estuary (Southeastern Florida). Employing a large-domain approach (i.e., the Western North Atlantic Tidal model domain), two-dimensional tidal flows within the Loxahatchee River estuary are reproduced to provide: 1) recommendations for the domain extent of an integrated, surface/groundwater, three-dimensional model; 2) nearshore, harmonically decomposed, tidal elevation boundary conditions. Tidal simulations are performed using a two-dimensional, depth-integrated, finite element-based code for coastal and ocean circulation, ADCIRC-2DDI. Multiple variations of an unstructured, finite element mesh are applied to encompass the Loxahatchee River estuary and different spatial extents of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIW). Phase and amplitude errors between model output and historical data are quantified at five locations within the Loxahatchee River estuary to emphasize the importance of including the AIW in the computational domain. In addition, velocity residuals are computed globally to reveal significantly different net circulation patterns within the Loxahatchee River estuary, as depending on the spatial coverage of the AIW.