Sensitivity analysis of a morphodynamic modeling system applied to a coastal lagoon inlet

Abstract

This work investigates the morphological changes at the inlet of a complex coastal system (Ria de Aveiro lagoon). This study was carried out using bathymetric data analysis and numerical simulations obtained with the 2DH morphodynamic modeling system MORSYS2D. The present simulations considered only tidal forcing and a sensitivity analysis was performed by tuning the formula used to compute the sediment fluxes and the sediment characteristics (d50) The comparison of numerical results with bathymetric data shows that the bottom changes are over-predicted when the formula of Bhattacharya et al. (2007) is considered, and more realistic numerical solutions are obtained with the formula of van Rijn (1984).