Some Considerations on Continental Scale Pollutant Transport Modelling in European Marine Waters
We use the numerical model GETM to build a simplified scheme of pollutant transport for European seas, in form of a linear multiple-box model. Boxes are defined following gyres and still water areas, thus minimizing the number of areas necessary to describe lateral exchanges of contaminants between zones. We use the multiple-box model to identify areas where a ¿water column¿ approach can, or cannot, be used for preliminary calculations, depending on the influence of lateral exchanges and the uniformity of distribution of emissions in space. Also, we make use of dispersion and velocity maps to compute the attenuation of coastal pollution for a generic non-conservative pollutant. We show that a reasonable way to compute concentrations as a function of distance from the coast is an exponential decay with constant given by the ratio of velocity on dispersion. The approach is proposed in order to obtain quick estimates of spatial mass distribution of pollutants when a ¿water column¿ approach cannot be used, prior to using more comprehensive and computationally demanding sea transport models which remain the elective or necessary tool for more detailed evaluation.
PISTOCCHI Alberto;
STIPS Adolf;
2010-06-16
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC56757
978-92-79-15067-8,
1018-5593,
EUR 24267 EN,
OP LB-NA-24267-EN-C,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC56757,
10.2788/66854,
Additional supporting files
| File name | Description | File type | |
|---|
