Analysis of Flood Control Effect by Applying the Connecting Channel in Estuary Area Including the Confluence of Two Rivers

Abstract

In the estuary where the structure such as river-mouth weir has been installed, the flow is developed very complicatedly due to river water from upstream, tide of the sea and floodgate operation. Especially, if basin outlets more than one exists in one estuary, the boundary conditions will be significantly more complex form. Saemangeum(SMG) project area in Korea is the most typical example. There are Mankyung river and Dongjin river in upstream. The water of them inflows into SMG project area. In the downstream, river flow was drained from inland to sea over the SMG sea dike through the sluice. The connecting channel was located between Mankyung and Dongjin basins. It functions not only as transportation by ship in ordinary period but also as flood sharing by sending flood flow to each other in flood period. Therefore, in order to secure the safety against flood, it is very important to understand the flood sharing capacity for connecting channel. In this study, the flood control effect was analyzed using numerical simulation. Delft3D was used to numerical simulation and simulated period was set up with neap tide, in which the maximum flood stage occurred due to poor drainage. Actually, three connecting channels were designed in land use plan of the SMG Master Plan, but they were simplified to a single channel for conciseness of analysis in this study. According to the results of numerical analysis, the water level difference between two basins was increased and the maximum flood stage at dike sluice was also upraised depending on decrease of conveyance. And the velocity induced by same water level difference was decreased when the conveyance became smaller. In certain conveyance above, there was almost no flood control effect. Therefore, if the results of this study are considered for design of connecting channel, it will be expected to draw the optimal conveyance for minimizing dredging construction cost while maximizing the flood control effect.