Parallel Canal Design for Waterfront Development

Some residential canal networks may be designed to eliminate zones of poor circulation and to improve flushing by utilizing the parallel canal concept. Applicable in rivers and in bounded tidal waterbodies, the canal system must have two connections to the main flow and these must be separated by a sufficient distance to ensure unidirectional flow through the entire network. The Dynamic Estuary Model, with minor modifications, simulates water surface elevations and flow in a canal network and can assist the designer in predicting whether unidirectional flow will occur. Simulations of flow in the Intracoastal Waterway at a proposed canal site in Martin County, Florida, established boundary conditions that matched current measurements in the waterway. These boundary conditions were then applied to a numerical model of the waterway connected to the proposed canal network. Unidirectional flow was predicted by the hydrodynamic model, and the computed flows were used to estimate the advective transport of pollutants from the proposed canal system. The model could be used for further refinements of entrance channel and canal geometry, if necessary.