The impact of morphodynamics and storm floods on pore water flow and transport in the subterranean estuary

Abstract

In this study, we demonstrate by numerical density-dependent groundwater flow and transport modelling how transient beach morphology and regular storm floods that are typical for high-energy beaches change this classical picture of a subterranean estuary. The model results suggest that the variable beach morphology and seasonal storm floods lead to strong spatiotemporal variability of hydrodynamic and transport patterns reaching several 10th of meters into the subsurface, thereby distorting the classical salinity stratification. We believe that these findings are particularly relevant for sandy high-energy beaches which are commonly present at global coastlines.