The study site, Ta-pon Bay, is located in southwestern Taiwan that has the total volume of 9.92 x 106 m3, surface area of 4.46 x 106 m2, and an average depth of 2.19 m. The Ta-pon Bay is a shallow and semi-enclosed lagoon. The tidal regime at the Ta-pon Bay inlet is mixed, with diurnal dominance. There is noticeable amount of land-derived freshwater inflow in Ta-pon Bay and the mixing between the sea water and freshwater is largely determined by the tide.
In order to understand the tidal exchange process between Ta-pon Bay and the coastal sea, the observation focused on the physiographic and hydrographic characteristics of this lagoon. The bathymetry of the study area was also surveyed. From the spatial sediment grain-size distribution pattern, the high energy region is at the inlet and the low energy region is in the interior of the lagoon. Our observation results indicate that freshwater outflow from the Kao-ping River was not transported into Ta-pon Bay. Tides are also the dominant cause for the water level fluctuations in the lagoon. In our winter observation, the local wind effects and atmospheric forcing dominated the subtidal sea surface fluctuations. In summer observation, the subtidal variability was strongly influenced by freshwater inflow. In Ta-pon Bay, the spatial salinity distribution was controlled by the flood and ebb tides, and the spatial temperature distribution was controlled by the different seasons.
The tidal prism model can help us understand the tidal exchange between a shallow coastal lagoon and the open sea, and estimate the volume of freshwater inflow, return flow factor, and the turn-over time. Furthermore, we used a one-dimensional model to simulate the hydrodynamics of tidal inlet. The model results show good agreement with observations. We found that the superelevation of the lagoon was 20 cm. This mean sea level difference was caused by freshwater inflow and accumulation of lagoonward tidal transport of water.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0829102-155359 |
| Date | 29 August 2002 |
| Creators | Cheng, Po-Hsin |
| Contributors | none, none, none, T-James Liu |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | Cholon |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0829102-155359 |
| Rights | unrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive |
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