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Spatial tidal asymmetry of Cochin estuary, West Coast, India

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Abstract

An intensive one-month long observational campaign of tides and currents during dry season were used to describe the tidal dynamics and the spatial evolution of tidal asymmetry in Cochin estuary. The estuary is described as hyposynchronous since tidal amplitude and currents get attenuated towards upstream through frictional dissipation. The results showed that the tidal momentum balance along the main axis of the channel was dominated by pressure gradient and friction. The influence of advection was prevalent near the inlets and friction was greatest in the shallow upstream regions. Higher harmonics were generated in the estuary through nonlinear friction and advection causing tidal distortions. Being a mixed predominantly semidiurnal tidal regime, tidal asymmetry was quantified in terms of sample skewness to examine the spatial evolution in the total asymmetry. The principal astronomical tides (M2, K1 and O1) interacted to engender flood dominance at the inlets. The compound tides and overtides generated inside the estuary were found to either augment or transform the asymmetry imposed by the principal tides. The study showed that friction causes flood dominance at the northern inlet (Munambam) and in the shallow regions of the upstream during dry season. In striking contrast, the Cochin inlet and the adjacent harbor area turned to be ebb-dominant. These findings have implications for management and sediment transport mechanisms within the estuary.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the director of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, and the scientist in-charge of the NIO Regional Centre, Cochin, for support and encouragement. This paper work is a part of the doctoral research of the first author, Vinita J. who acknowledges the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, for the financial support in the form of a senior research fellowship. This research was also partially funded by the Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management under the project “Ecosystem Modeling of Cochin Estuary”. This is NIO’s contribution 5779.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Author notes

  1. N. T. Manoj

    Present address: General Commission for Survey (Govt. of Saudi Arabia), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Regional Centre, Dr. Salim Ali Road, P.B.No.16161, Kochi, Kerala, India, 682 018

    J. Vinita, A. Shivaprasad, C. Revichandran, K. R. Naveenkumar & V. K. Jineesh

  2. CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, 403004, India

    N. T. Manoj

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  1. J. Vinita
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  5. K. R. Naveenkumar
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  6. V. K. Jineesh
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Correspondence to J. Vinita.

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Vinita, J., Shivaprasad, A., Manoj, N.T. et al. Spatial tidal asymmetry of Cochin estuary, West Coast, India. J Coast Conserv 19, 537–551 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-015-0405-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-015-0405-9

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