Modelagem hidrodinâmica aplicada ao estuário amazônico: uma abordagem em malha flexível

Abstract

Amazonian Estuary is a very complex system due to its large number of water bodies; it also encompasses four of the 20 largest rivers of world. Several hydrodynamic models have been applied on this system, but its complexity on shape makes difficult the grid definition when curvilinear grid is used. This research aimed the implementation of hydrodynamic model on this, based in flexible mesh grid that is easier to define on this kind of systems than curvilinear grids, and analyze the hydrodynamic patterns within this estuary. The methodology is based on the use of D-Flow in which a flexible mesh can be defined. The model domain encompasses the low course of Amazon River, Tapajós River, Xingu River, Tocantins River, Guajará Bay, Marajó Bay, Breves Strait and Pará River as well as the flood plain area and the adjacent continental shelf. The model presents a quite good calibration values for tidal signal as well as discharge since the Pearson's correlation coefficient presented values bigger than 0.95 for both and rmse presented values smaller than 5% for the former and 15% for the latter. The model also performed well on representation of several scenarios that represented extreme conditions regarding tide and discharge sources of Amazonian Estuary and it showed expected patterns by comparison with in situ data.