Freshwater flushing time scales of the Vashishti Estuary, west coast of India
Abstract
Results are presented for the Vashishti estuary, Kerala, India to evaluate its freshwater flushing time scales based on 8 sets of observations of longitudinal salinity distributions. The results of the flushing time using the fraction of freshwater method indicated that the load retained in the estuary after infinite number of tidal cycles was 44 to 54 times the load introduced per tidal cycles during premonsoon and 47 to 61 times during postmonsoon periods. Calculations on longitudinal diffusion coefficient (K) showed values ranging from 12 to 271 m sup(2) sec sup(-1) with smaller values occurring in the month region. Results of the effective diffusivity indicated that changes in K and mixing length together can cause a decrease in flushing time which is in general agreement with the observed dependence of the flushing time from the river discharge rate.
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