Hydrodynamics and modelling of water flow in mangrove areas

Abstract

Mangrove forests cover wide tropical and subtropical intertidal areas, and they are very important for their role in maintaining biodiversity, for sustainable livelihood (e.g., wood and food resources) and for coastal protection (Robertson and Alongi, 1992; Wolanski et al., 2001, 2004; Mazda et al., 2002; Wolanski, 2006a). Human activities since the late 19th century have led to the reduction of mangrove forests around the globe (Spalding et al., 1997). This degradation seriously threatens the sustainability of mangrove ecosystems worldwide, and has also adversely affected human populations (Hong and San, 1993; Mazda et al., 2002; Hong, 2006).

Managing mangroves requires understanding the natural mechanisms that form and maintain this environment. This requires using quantitative, process-based, models. In temperate coastal environments, such models have been developed based on a two-step procedure, namely,

Step 1; A hydrodynamic model is used to calculate water flows, which transport and disperses chemical/biological materials.

Step 2: Based on the hydrodynamic model, an ecosystem model is driven to calculate the flows of biomass and energy in the food web.