Calibration and Validation of Hydrodynamics and Salinity Transport Model for Sabine Lake Water System

Abstract

In this study, a hydrodynamic and a salinity transport models were developed for simulations of Sabine Lake water system located on the Texas-Louisiana border. The target simulation area includes several major water bodies, such as Sabine Lake, Sabine River, Sabine Pass, Sabine Neches Canal (Ship Channel), and part of Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) and Sabine River Diversion Canal (SRDC). The SRDC supplies fresh water to the area industry, mainly petrochemical. High salinity in SRDC could significantly affect the daily production of the industry. Two-dimensional (2D) depth-averaged shallow water equation set and 2D depth-averaged salinity transport equation were used for developing the hydrodynamic and salinity transport numerical models in order to carry out the simulation. The major purposes of this study are to calibrate and validate hydrodynamic and salinity transport models in order to assess and predict the salinity in SRDC under severe weather conditions such as hurricane storm surges in future study. Measurement data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) were used to calibrate the boundary conditions as well as to validate the model. Boundary conditions were calibrated at locations in Sabine Pass and in the north edge of the lake by using water–surface elevation data. Hydrodynamic model was validated at the USGS location using water–surface elevation data. Then, the simulation estimations of water surface level and salinity were compared at three locations, and the results show the accuracy of the validated model. Parallel computing was conducted in this study as well, and computational efficiency was compared.