Construction of nets of sub-basins

Abstract

In many aquatic applications, geometry and dynamics split a water body into regions controlled by different physical processes (Figure 5.1). A useful approach is to model the system as a net of sub-basins and separately examine the effects of local factors and the interaction between surrounding basins. This approach is an obvious choice for lakes with complex geometries due to straits, bays or islands, estuaries, and semienclosed seas, but it could also be used in the mass balance studies of large water bodies, such as oceans; for example, we could examine water balance by looking at the exchange of water between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. In this chapter, we will first learn how to couple two coastal basins and how to include a moving grid for calculating changes in water levels. From the exercise we will learn how to expand the two-basin model into a three-basin model. Then we will examine a fully coupled sub-basin system that divides the Baltic Sea into 13 sub-basins.