Impacts of climate change and human activities on the water discharge and sediment load of the Pearl River, southern China.

Global climate change and human activities have important effects on the water discharge and sediment load of the Pearl River. In this study, the water discharge and sediment load were investigated by using hydro-meteorological data from 1954 to 2018. The linear regression, Mann-Kendall abrupt test and double mass curve were employed to detect trends and abrupt change-points in water discharge and sediment load and to quantify the effects of climate change and human activities on water discharge and sediment load.

A model study of the effects of river discharges and winds on hypoxia in summer in the Pearl River Estuary.

The deterioration of dissolved oxygen conditions in the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) in summer has recently attracted considerable-scientific and political-attention. This paper documents the development, calibration, and verification of a coupled three-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model for the PRE. A comparison of the model's performance against field observations indicated that the model is capable of reproducing key hydrodynamic and water quality characteristics of the estuary within an acceptable range of accuracy.

Monitoring cooling water discharge using Lagrangian coherent structures: a case study in Daya Bay, China.

As an unwanted by-product in the power plants, cooling water (CW) discharge may induce harmful effects on the coastal environment. In this paper, to accurately predict the CW transport in the Daya Bay, China, we develop a three-dimensional hydrodynamic and temperature model to simulate the transport of the CW from nuclear power plant into coastal waters. Specifically, we use the flow velocity produced by the model to locate Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs) hidden in ocean surface currents.