Abstract
A three-dimensional integrated hydrodynamic and water quality model of the Arabian Gulf has been developed in this study based on the hydrodynamic modeling program Delft3D. The model was forced by seasonal estimated discharges from all major rivers, validated tidal constituents, time- and depth-varying offshore boundary conditions, measured meteorological data and time- and space-varying wind and atmospheric pressure. The model performs well, especially when comparing results with measured coastal data in Kuwait, situated at the northwestern part of the Arabian Gulf. Simulation results suggests strong short-term dynamics and long-term seasonal variation of hydrodynamic and water quality processes of the Arabian Gulf including its northwestern part. It was pointed out from the results that the northwestern part of the Arabian Gulf has a strong dependency on river discharges and meteorology. Although only preliminary water quality modeling has been done in this study, results indicated relevant general characteristics of some water quality parameters and its great dependencies on forcing data.
Highlights
The Arabian Gulf (AG), known as the Persian Gulf and Inner ROPME sea area, is a shallow semienclosed hypersaline sea surrounded by desert countries (Figure 1)
This paper presents the development of a three-dimensional hydro-environmental numerical model for the AG using a coupled hydrodynamic model (Delft3D-FLOW) with a water quality model (Delft3D-WAQ)
The 3D-AGM hydrodynamic model was developed by means of the Delft3D-FLOW software (Deltares, 2011a)
Summary
The Arabian Gulf (AG), known as the Persian Gulf and Inner ROPME sea area, is a shallow semienclosed hypersaline sea surrounded by desert countries (Figure 1). The water circulation of the AG is inverse-estuarine governed generally by salinity gradient resulted from excess evaporation over river runoff and precipitation (Reynolds, 1993). Previous studies (e.g., Kampf and Sadrinasab, 2005; Yao and John, 2010; Pokavanich and Al-Osairi, 2013) mentioned that the water circulation feature of the AG is coupled result of the wind-driven. The AG has not received adequate attention and there is a limited systematic monitoring, knowledge sharing, understandings related to physical and biochemical oceanographic processes, integrated and cumulative impacts studies for coastal development by surrounding countries of the AG. Results of the three-dimensional Arabian Gulf Model (3D-AGM) will be used to characterize important hydrodynamic and the water quality features of the gulf with a special focus its northern part
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