Exchange flows in an urban water body: Bayou St. John responses to the removal of flood control structures, future water elevation control, and water quality

<p>Bayou St. John, an urban water body extending south from Lake Pontchartrain, has two anthropogenic structures that regulate flow from the Lake . The City of New Orleans has plans to remove the inner control structure to improve water quality. Field and numerical methods used in this study show removing this structure increased water elevations throughout the Bayou but resulted in lower water elevation signal amplitudes that caused a lower tidal flow exchange from north to south. Bulk Richardson numbers showed mixing was inversely related to flow and the Bayou generally remains stratified. Resuspension of contaminated sediment could negatively impact the local ecology but predicted shear stress values did not reach a critical value (0.1 N/m²) for resuspension. Removal of the waterfall structure will benefit Bayou St. John by decreasing energy losses from the Lake, however a more pronounced tidal signal from Lake Pontchartrain is required to flush the Bayou.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Earth and Environmental Sciences

Year

2011

Author dc:creator

• Schroeder, Robin L

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Ioannis Georgiou
• Dr. Martin OConnell
• Dr. Alex McCorquodale

• Bayou St. John, contamination, shear stress, Bulk Richardson number, temperature, salinity, water elevation, waterfall structure
• Hydrology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1394

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-2356