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Numerical Sediment Transport Modeling: John C. Warner

Project Title: Numerical Sediment Transport Modeling
Mendenhall Fellow: John C. Warner
Duty Station: Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Start Date: September 9, 2001
Education: Ph.D. (2000), Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis
Research Advisors: Brad Butman, (508) 457-2212, bbutman@usgs.gov; Chris Sherwood, (508) 457-2269, csherwood@usgs.gov
Project Description: Prediction of the transport and fate sediment in coastal environments is important because sediment may contain adhered contaminants, have implications for navigation, fishing, recreation, waste disposal, and affect habitats of endangered species. The physical processes that transport sediment are complex, and simulation of these processes is best approached with numerical models. Models offer a means to evaluate the impacts of both natural and anthropogenic influences on sediment transport. However, there are few publicly available models that contain full-featured algorithms and are fully tested and widely established. There is a need for a model that is community based (freely available), widely accepted, and applicable to various coastal settings. John's research seeks to (1) assist in the development of a Community Sediment Transport Model; (2) develop specific cases and test hydrodynamic and sediment transport models; and (3) apply sediment transport models in regional studies.

One oceanographic model that John is working with is the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). ROMS is a free-surface, hydrostatic, primitive equation ocean model that uses stretched, terrain-following coordinates in the vertical and orthogonal curvilinear coordinates in the horizontal. A more complete description of the model may be found at http://marine.rutgers.edu/po/index.html. John is in the process of coding sediment-transport routines and multiple turbulence closure algorithms for this model. These routines will be tested and then applied to regional studies in the Hudson River, Massachusetts Bay, and possibly elsewhere. Model advances made during these efforts will contribute to the community modeling effort.

Publications:

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