Evaluation of Sediment Transport Processes in the Port of Fortaleza—Brazil

Since its construction, in the beginning of the forties, that the port of Fortaleza had a strong impact over the local coastal area. For one side the port have problems of sediment deposition in its interior which are solved by the execution of regular dredging works. For another side the port structures promoted the increasing of an erosion process over the coast located west of the port that led to the construction of several coastal structures in order to stop it. Those problems had always be a concern of the port authority that promoted several studies in order to try to identify and solve them. As result of those studies some engineering works had been proposed and executed but the port situation in what concerns the necessity of doing regular dredging works to maintain the port full operational still remains. In the beginning of 1997 the port authority decided to promote a new study that should identify the causes of port siltation and point possible correction actions. In the framework of this study a mathematical model capable to describe the hydrodynamic and the sediment transport processes was implemented, supported on field measurement campaigns for bathymetry, sediment characteristics, currents, suspended sediment transport and dyed sand. The main results of this study are the subject of the present paper.