Modelling of Coastal Currents and Pollutants Dispersion

A Southern Adriatic coastal current is examined in the present paper, on the basis of some measurements carried out offshore Bari town in the Southern Adriatic Sea (South Italy) by means of a Vessel Mounted Acoustic Doppler Velocity Profiler (VM-ADCP). During the investigations, the current flow appeared unidirectional, i.e. mainly directed towards South-East, with decreasing velocities with increasing depth, as expected. In the present case, the 3D model MIKE 3FM by DHI was used to reproduce the hydrodynamics in the examined area. The computational domain was discretized by a mesh, with a finer resolution approaching the coastline. The input forcings used in model were the time-varying tidal elevation measured by the National Mareographic Network and the time-varying satellite wind field recorded by the National Research Council (NRC), relatively to the survey period. To run the model in baroclinic mode also the average sea temperature and salinity of the period were used as input conditions. Firstly, the model was calibrated, by tuning some critical parameters such as the wind drag coefficient and the bottom friction, in order to reach the best agreement between field measurements and model results. Successively, the vulnerability of the analyzed area was also checked, simulating the possible dispersion of polluting substances, due to the outflow of the Bari North wastewater plant. With this approach, some risk maps could be obtained as model outputs, which could be of great support in both planning and managing coastal activities.