Author(s)

A. Fukuda^1*, T. Tabata², Y. Honda³, K. Hiramatsu², M. Harada²

¹Department of Agro-Environmental Sciences, Graduate School of Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
²Department of Agro-Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
³Chiyonosono Sake Brewery INC, Kumamoto, Japan.

In this study, numerical simulation of a two-dimensional convective-dispersive model in Hakata Bay, Japan, is performed to analyze the impact of major river discharges due to torrential rain in Fukuoka City. Tank models are applied to calculate river discharges, which are taken into consideration as river inflow in the hydrodynamic model of Hakata Bay. A two-way nesting “edge” technique is developed and applied in the model in order to consider the influence of narrow and complex geographical features. The area around “Island City” and Imazu Bay are calculated in high resolution. The resulting model has high reproducibility since the calculated river discharges, tidal current, and salinity show good agreement with observed data. To analyze the impact of large river discharges, the calculation period is set from 11 September 2002 to 21 September 2002 since there was torrential rain on September 16 in the given year in Fukuoka City (163.5 mm/d). The results show that low-salinity water covered the whole of the inner part of Hakata Bay, and water of lower salinity than outer sea water (<34.0 psu) spread out to the bay’s mouth two days after the torrential rain event. Fresh water covered the entire area of Imazu Bay and flowed out from the mouth of the Bay after the torrential rain event. The behavior of fresh water after a few days of torrential rain was remarkably different from normal discharge river flow. These results indicate that the environment in Imazu Bay can be degraded severely by torrential rain. Therefore, countermeasures to protect ecosystems in Hakata Bay must be examined immediately.

Two-Dimensional Convective-Dispersive Model, Edge Nesting, Tank Model, Torrential Rain, Hakata Bay

Fukuda, A. , Tabata, T. , Honda, Y. , Hiramatsu, K. and Harada, M. (2017) Impact of Large Fresh Water Discharges into Hakata Bay Due to Torrential Rain Using Nested Two-Dimensional Convective-Dispersive Model. Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 9, 553-565. doi: 10.4236/jwarp.2017.96036.