APBA and GOFIMA Research Group develop an environmental management tool for port waters

Algeciras Port Authority, together with the Physical Oceanography Group of the University of Malaga (GOFIMA), have developed a tool to support environmental management in the Port of Algeciras. The tool analyses the quality of water in the eight PAMUs (Port Aquatic Management Units) of the Port. This aims to comply with the recommendations of ROM 5.1-13 and highlight the results of the High Resolution Hydrodynamic Model developed during the first phase of ABP2020.

An innovative particle evolution algorithm has been implemented for each of the eight PAMUs. The High Resolution Hydrodynamic Model, which allows obtaining a series of water quality indicators like renewal time and residence time, powers the algorithm. This implementation has been carried out in a 61-day simulation, compiling almost all the possible combinations of external forces that could affect the evolution of trajectories. These include the states of tides (filling/emptying tide, high and low tide), prevailing winds (Eastside, Westside, calm) and bi-weekly modulations of the tides (live tide, dead tide).

The results are available online: http://oceano.uma.es/ugaps. Water-quality analysis sheets portray one of the possible combinations of external force on a single PAMU.

 

The cards contain the following information:

• A map of the location and the selected conditions.
• The development of particle quantities and corresponding renewal times.
• A map portraying dwell time and a still of the particle trajectory animation.
• A renewal capacity classification of the PAMU displayed as a traffic light (if renewal takes less than a week, the capacity for renewal of the PAMU is defined as high and the box is green, otherwise the capacity for renewal would be low and the box red).