Circulation in Stratified Lakes due to Flood-Induced Turbidity Currents
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 11
Abstract
The river inflow in a natural lake with important suspended sediment load during floods, can impact water quality by mobilizing dissolved matters like phosphorous from deep to surface waters. Generally due to thermal stratification in prealpine lakes, the water column is stable. It does not mix vertically unless acted on by outside forces, for example, currents or winds. Since Lake Lugano has a strong thermal stratification, river inflow exhibits different modes of density currents, from surface flows and thermocline intrusion to bottom currents. Turbidity currents are the direct cause of the downward water flow, and at the same time at the origin of upward directed flow. In this study, the impact of river born turbidity currents in Lake Lugano under varying ambient conditions was investigated using field measurements at the inflow river and inside the lake, together with a full three-dimensional numerical model of the entire lake. The paper characterizes the induced circulation of the turbidity plume and gives some indications on the relevance of turbidity currents on the lake.
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Acknowledgments
The presented study was financially supported by the International Commission for the Protection of the Italian–Swiss Waters (Commissione Internazionale per la Protezione delle Acque Italo-Svizzere-CIPAIS), represented by the Laboratorio Studi Ambientali (LSA) of the Canton Ticino in Lugano with its former director Alberto Barbieri. The Laboratorio di Fisica Terrestre (LFT, Professor Febo Zamboni) and the Limnological Research Center of the Swiss Federal Institute for Water Resources and Water Pollution Control (EAWAG, Professor Alfred Wüest) carried out the field measurements, the data analysis, and vertical flux calculations. The numerical simulations have mainly been performed by Andrea Lavelli, former research engineer at the Laboratory of Hydraulic Constructions (LCH). Mrs. Marlène Mettler-Lawton is acknowledged for the final proofreading, and the two anonymous reviewers are also gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 11 • November 2006
Pages: 1508 - 1517
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 3, 2004
Accepted: May 26, 2005
Published online: Nov 1, 2006
Published in print: Nov 2006
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