Hydro-environmental modelling of the Arabian Gulf and Kuwait Bay

Studying and understanding the hydro-environmental characteristics of the Arabian Gulf has received growing interest over the past few decades. This is mainly attributed to the strategic importance of the area, since it has been utilised to transport most of the oil production from the Gulf states. Over the last five decades, rapid industrial coastal development also has taken place around the Gulf. Development has brought desalination, power and petroleum refining plants. Coastal developments and industrial and domestic sewage discharges have contributed to the total nutrient levels in the Gulf, which have enhanced unwanted algal growth in various coastal areas. More recently, climate change has brought flooding to the Gulf states and frequent dust storms, which have increased various environmental issues, such as sediment transport and nutrient sorption processes, also in the shallow regions of the Gulf. In the current study the geographic dispersion of numerical tracers and flushing characteristics, in terms of residence time, of the Gulf have been investigated. The study has revealed that dispersion of numerical tracers is chiefly controlled by tides in the Gulf, while winds had limited effects. The residence time in the Gulf was predicted to be almost 3 years using ELCOM. Kuwait Bay was also investigated in terms of the governing hydrodynamics using ELCOM. Similar to the Gulf, the study revealed that the Bay was chiefly driven by tides and to a lesser extent by winds. Detailed studies of temperature, using the same model, showed that temperatures varied seasonally in the Bay. In terms of salinity, investigations have shown that the Shatt Al Arab has an apparent effect on the Bay's salinity, particularly in the northern areas. The maximum residence time of the Bay was calculated to be 57 days near al Jahra using ELCOM. The main model refinements were conducted on including the phosphorus source terms in TRIVAST, based on experimental investigations in a hydraulics flume channel. The refinements included the addition of new source terms accounting for the adsorption of phosphorus to suspended sediments and bed sediments. Model investigations have shown that the model refinements improved the model predictions of phosphorus levels, with phosphorus being the limiting nutrient during high suspended sediment events in Kuwait Bay. In general, good water quality predictions in Kuwait Bay were achieved using both ELCOM-CAEDYM and TRIVAST. Predictions have shown that the Shatt Al-Arab waterway has significant effects of the water quality of the Bay. Better hydrodynamic predictions were achieved using ELCOM than TRIVAST for the Gulf and the Bay. This was due to the additional mathematical terms included in ELCOM, including, in particular, the terms representing tidal forces that were calculated from the gravitational potential

Mixing and flushing in the Arabian/Persian Gulf

The assimilative capacities of estuaries and coastal seas for effluent discharges are predominantly determined by the rates at which pollutant-bearing effluents are first dispersed and then flushed from the coastal region into the open ocean. The dispersion coefficients and flushing, as measured by the water residence time in the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf), were investigated using the three-dimensional numerical model Estuary, Lake and Coastal Ocean Model (ELCOM). The model was first validated using the R/V Mt. Mitchell expedition profile data, collected from 27 January to 26 February 1992 and from 13 May to 12 June 1992. The validated model was then used to compute the geographic variability of the horizontal dispersion coefficients Kx throughout the gulf. Model results revealed that dispersion was principally driven by the shear associated with the tides, but along the Arabian coast, wind was an additional significant energy source for dispersion. The water residence time was found to be more than 3 years along the Arabian coast, but shorter along the Iranian coast

A Regional Review of Marine and Coastal Impacts of Climate Change on the ROPME Sea Area

The Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment (ROPME) Sea Area (RSA) in the northern Indian Ocean, which comprises the Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the northern Arabian Sea, already experiences naturally extreme environmental conditions and incorporates one of the world’s warmest seas. There is growing evidence that climate change is already affecting the environmental conditions of the RSA, in areas including sea temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and sea level, which are set to continue changing over time. The cumulative impacts of these changes on coastal and marine ecosystems and dependent societies are less well documented, but are likely to be significant, especially in the context of other human stressors. This review represents the first regional synthesis of observed and predicted climate change impacts on marine and coastal ecosystems across the ROPME Sea Area and their implications for dependent societies. Climate-driven ecological changes include loss of coral reefs due to bleaching and the decline of fish populations, while socio-economic impacts include physical impacts from sea-level rise and cyclones, risk to commercial wild capture fisheries, disruption to desalination systems and loss of tourism. The compilation of this review is aimed to support the development of targeted adaptation actions and to direct future research within the RSA.Science, Faculty ofNon UBCOceans and Fisheries, Institute for theReviewedFacultyResearcherOthe