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Modeling fecal contamination in the Aljezur coastal stream (Portugal)

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Abstract

This study aims at understanding the fecal contamination behavior in a small coastal stream (Aljezur, Portugal), which has significant economic and ecological values. Like in most small coastal systems, circulation and water renewal in the Aljezur stream exhibit a strong variability due to their dependence on tides, waves, intermittent river flows, and a highly variable morphology. Hence, the problem was approached through a combination of field surveys and the development and application of a hard-coupled three-dimensional hydrodynamic and fecal contamination model. Salinity and temperature results have shown that mixing and transport in the stream are very sensitive to the river flow and wind forcing. The model is able to represent the main patterns and trends observed in Escherichia coli and fecal enterococcus concentrations along the stream, for different environmental and contamination conditions, suggesting die-off rates on the order of 0.50–0.55 day−1. Die-off rate and the representation of the sediment-associated processes were identified as the major remaining sources of uncertainty in the model. Results show that, owing to the processes that occur along the stream, fecal bacteria reach the beaches water in numbers that comply with the European Bathing Waters Directive, even during the summer periods when the upstream concentrations are larger. In particular, results suggest a direct relation between the tidal propagation upstream and the reduction of the fecal bacteria concentrations along the stream that can be relevant for the development of a strategy for the management of the system’s water safety.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia project MADyCOS (PTDC/ECM/66484/2006). The first author was also partially funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia grant SFRH/BD/41033/2007. This research would not have been be possible without the participants in the project and in the field campaigns: R. Taborda, C. Andrade, C. Freitas, A. M. Silva, C. Antunes, P. Freire, R. Capitão, C.J. Fortes, L.S. Pedro, J. Vale, A. Nahon, D. Neves, C. Zózimo, L. Pinheiro, M. Rosa, C. Monteiro, S. Cardeira, C. Loureiro, V. Napier, X. Bertin, N. Bruneau, L. Pinto and L. Trovisco. The authors are grateful for all the effort and support. The authors also thank the developers of the model SELFE, Prof. António M. Baptista and Prof. Joseph Zhang, for making their code available. The NCEP Reanalysis data is provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their website at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/. The meteorological data from the Aljezur station is available at SNIRH (http://snirh.pt).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Estuaries and Coastal Zones Division, National Laboratory for Civil Engineering, Av. do Brasil, 101, 1700–066, Lisbon, Portugal

    Marta Rodrigues, Martha Guerreiro & André Bustorff Fortunato

  2. Information Technology in Hydraulics and Environment Division, National Laboratory for Civil Engineering, Av. do Brasil, 101, 1700–066, Lisbon, Portugal

    Anabela Oliveira

  3. Urban Water Division, National Laboratory for Civil Engineering, Av. do Brasil, 101, 1700–066, Lisbon, Portugal

    José Menaia & Luís Mesquita David

  4. Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences Department, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005–139, Faro, Portugal

    Alexandra Cravo

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  1. Marta Rodrigues
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Correspondence to Marta Rodrigues.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Joint Numerical Sea Modelling Group Workshop 2010Responsible Editor: Phil Peter Dyke

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Rodrigues, M., Oliveira, A., Guerreiro, M. et al. Modeling fecal contamination in the Aljezur coastal stream (Portugal). Ocean Dynamics 61, 841–856 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-011-0392-9

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