Hydrodynamics and transport in estuaries and rivers by the CBS finite element method

This paper presents an extension of the numerical solution of the shallow water equations by the characteristic split (CBS) finite element method to hydraulic engineering problems in estuaries and rivers. A nearly implicit version is formulated and tested and an efficient procedure to implement practical open boundary conditions in the CBS is proposed. This work includes a real numerical application for long term prediction of water quality in terms of salinity concentration in an estuary/river system to improve farmland irrigation given the detailed tidal/fresh water dynamics involved