Overview
The three-dimensional transport of sediments released by the main rivers in the Colombian Caribbean basin was investigated using numerical model simulations. Different types of sediments — fine sands, very fine sands, and coarse silts — were tracked to understand their pathways from the river mouth to the seafloor.
Model Setup
Sediments were tracked by implementing SedimentDrift software, a subclass of the OpenDrift open-source trajectory framework. The simulations were forced with climatological winds from ERA-5 and currents from the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS). In situ measurements from the area were used to evaluate the forcing fields, and the diagnostic analysis concluded that the ERA-5 and CMEMS datasets are reliable for oceanographic and coastal engineering studies in the Colombian basin.
Key Findings
The sediment transport of non-cohesive particles at each river mouth is subject to the variability of local hydrodynamics, morphological features, and grain size, which determines settling velocities — all of which were evaluated in detail. Given the lack of available in situ information, the Lagrangian model’s performance was evaluated by comparison with previous river plume dynamics studies. The simulations provide evidence of the importance of high-resolution ocean current data, which is the main factor determining trajectories and dispersion patterns at seasonal scales.