STORMSED1.0: hydrodynamics and sediment transport in a 2-D, steady-state, wind- and wave-driven coastal circulation model

• Published in: Computers & geosciences Vol. 27; no. 6; pp. 647 - 674
• Main Authors: Cookman, Janette L., Flemings, Peter B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2001
• Subjects: Coastal; Coriolis; Marine; MATLAB; Sediment transport; Simulation; Coastal; Simulation; Coriolis; MATLAB; Sediment transport
• ISSN: 0098-3004; 1873-7803
• DOI: 10.1016/S0098-3004(00)00121-7

STORMSED1.0 is a MATLAB TM program that solves the steady-state, linearized, horizontal momentum equations in the along-shelf and cross-shelf directions for a linear shoreline given a constant wind stress and waves of constant amplitude and period. The model provides a quantitative link between storms and sedimentation that may assist geologists interpreting the stratigraphic record. It provides a rapid analytical approach to quantify the sedimentation that results from coastal circulation that may be extended to long time scales and linked to other sedimentation models. In the northern hemisphere, shore-parallel wind, where flow is to the right as the viewer faces the ocean, produces downwelling as the Coriolis force rotates bottom flow from shore-parallel to slightly offshore with increasing water depth. In the shallow and intermediate zones, cross-shelf flow velocities and sediment flux increase offshore and erosion occurs. Seaward, in the deep zone, velocities are constant, wave-effect declines with depth, cross-shelf sediment flux decreases offshore, and deposition results. Shore-parallel winds oriented in the opposite direction produce upwelling and the sedimentation pattern is reversed. The model solves for the current distribution, the sediment concentration profile, the bedload and suspended load, and the sedimentation rate at any node along a continental shelf. The circulation model is based on a wind-driven circulation model derived by Jeffries (1923). Waves are included using Airy wave theory, and the wave–current interaction is quantified using the bottom boundary layer model of Grant and Madsen (1979).