AQUASEA hydrodynamic and transport model: Salinity and dissolved oxygen simulation in El-Burullus Lake (Nile Delta, Egypt) considering different boundary conditions

Abstract

Burullus Lake, an Egyptian large shallow brackish-water Delta Lake, is affected by extensive human activities, the construction of fishponds nearby, and rapid social-economic development. This has impacted the health of the Lake's ecosystem. This study investigates the hydrodynamic and transport simulation model in Burullus Lake using the AQUASEA program, considering different boundary conditions. The model showed the flow circulation therein and that the velocity is maximum at the drain’s outfall and inlet locations. Self-purification capacity of the Lake occurs after about 27 days and Al-Khashah Drain sometimes pours water with salinity 30 ‰ and is responsible for increasing the salinity in the Lake to about 11 ‰. The verification and calibration of the model are based on salinity and dissolved oxygen measurements during the month of December 2019. The practice measurements of salinity and DO are close to the model results with a mean relative error value of 24.18% and 36.29, and a correlation coefficient value of 0.91 and 0.737, respectively. These results are in agreement with the actual observations but need more measurements to verify the model.

Keywords

• AQUASEA
• Hydrodynamic modeling
• Salinity
• Lake Burullus
• Egypt