Since 1970, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, has been using
dredged sediments from the Houston ship channel to create and restore salt marshes in
Galveston Bay. Some projects have failed due to excessive sediment erosion or siltation.
The research reported here applies an engineering approach to analysis of tidal creeks in
natural and beneficial use marshes of Galveston Bay. The hydrodynamic numerical
model, DYNLET, was used to assess circulation in marsh channels. A preliminary
sediment transport model was developed to analyze erosion and deposition for the same
channels. In situ flume experiments were conducted to determine the sediment
erodibility in natural and constructed marshes. A natural reference marsh, Elm Grove,
was studied to understand marsh hydrodynamics and model calibration. The model
results show that DYNLET can largely duplicate the marsh hydrodynamics and the
sediment transport model can provide preliminary indication of erosion in tidal creeks.
Analysis of the preliminary channel layout of the beneficial-use marsh demonstrated that
channels will have sufficient circulation and optimum velocities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4185 |
| Date | 30 October 2006 |
| Creators | Kushwaha, Vaishali |
| Contributors | Autenrieth, Robin, Ravens, Thomas M. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 875589 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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