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Environmental set-up and tidal propagation in a tropical estuary with dual connection to the sea (SW Coast of India)

DRS at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography

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Title Environmental set-up and tidal propagation in a tropical estuary with dual connection to the sea (SW Coast of India)
 
Creator Revichandran, C.
Srinivas, K.
Muraleedharan, K.R.
Rafeeq, M.
Shivaprasad, A.
Vijayakumar, K.
Jayalakshmy, K.V.
 
Subject tidal propoagation
sea level variations
river discharge
seasonal variations
 
Description The Kochi Backwater (KB) is the second largest wetland system in India. It is connected to the sea at Fort Kochi and Munambam (Pallipuram) (30 km north of Kochi). As the tide is forced through two openings, its propagation in the backwater system is very complicated, particularly in the northern arm of the estuary. Using synchronous water level (WL) and current measurements in the KB from a network of stations during 2007–2008, it was convenient to demarcate the northern KB into two distinct regions according to the tidal forcing from the north (Pallipuram) and south (Vallarpadam). This demarcation is useful for computing the propagation speeds of the dominant tidal constituents in the northern branch of the KB with dual opening for opposing tides. WL variations indicated that M sub(2) tide (Principal lunar semidiurnal constituent) dominated in the sea level variance, followed by the K sub(1) constituent (Luni-solar declinational diurnal constituent). The M sub(2) tidal influence was the strongest near the mouth and decayed in the upstream direction. The propagation speed of the M2 tide in the southern estuary was approx. 3.14 m/s. The ratio of the total annual runoff to the estuarine volume is approx. 42 that indicates the estuary will be flushed 42 times in a year. KB can be classified as a monsoonal estuary where the river discharge exhibits large seasonal variation.
 
Date 2012-07-27T09:01:37Z
2012-07-27T09:01:37Z
2012
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Environmental Earth Sciences, vol.66; 2012; 1031-1042
http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/4096
 
Language en
 
Rights An edited version of this paper was published by Springer. This paper is for R & D purpose and Copyright [2012] Springer.
 
Publisher Springer-Verlag