Sediment transport study in Kyunggi Bay, Korea

Abstract

Field study and numerical modeling approach have been conducted to study the sediment transport in macro-tidal Kyunggi Bay in Korea. The area of the Kyunggi Bay is approximately 20,000 square Km, where underwater sand mining has been conducted to supply the construction material to coastal cities in Korea. Approximately more than 19 million cubic meter of underwater sand have been mined every year, leaving significant pits deeper than the adjacent athymetry. As part of environment impact assessment, we carry out a sediment transport study. The purpose of this study is to increase our ability to predict the horizontal and vertical dispersion of the turbid plume in surface and bottom layers from the mining vessels, and to predict the recovery of the artificially deepened seabed. We have conducted a field experiment that is exclusively for this study, including experimental underwater sand mining ,and associated hydrodynamic and sedimentary processes in undisturbed area. Using the field data, we are doing comparative study of numerical modeling. The numerical study demonstrates the applicability of the EFDC, COHERENS and DIVAST to major sediment transport processes in the study area. A GIS-coupled application to 3-dimensional modeling result of coastal hydrodynamics and sediment processes will be presented.