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CHAPTER – 1
PREAMBLE
1.1 General
Increasing demands on water supply and growing concern for
water quality required watershed managers to know more about the
impact of land use on water. A large part of the supply in many parts
of the world comes from high elevation watersheds that are relatively
unused at present. It is essential that the impact of land use on water
quality must be understood if these lands are more intensively used
and at the same time maintain water quality at desired levels. The
first step in such an understanding is a better knowledge of natural
characteristics of these water supplies. Such detailed information on
the water quality of estuary is sparse.

1.2 Estuaries
An estuary is defined as a semi enclosed coastal body of water,
subjected to tidal action in which the seawater is measurably diluted
by fresh water. Therefore, the lower reaches of streams flowing into
marine waters are classified as estuaries. Some estuaries are
stratified in the sense that the salt water does not mix significantly
with the fresh water in a vertical direction. In such estuaries, two
prisms are formed – one of salt water (tidal prism) and the other being
fresh water (advective prism). As a general rule, stratified estuaries
are relatively deep. The one-dimensional transport models can be
applied to those estuaries of non-stratified type which are assumed to
have uniform lateral characteristics.
Water movement in an estuary varies significantly from that of a
stream. In those reaches of a river that are subjected to tides, the
motion of the water is caused not only by flow due to gravity but also
by the rise and fall of tides, density currents and wind effects.
Between ebb tide and flood tide, water movement will be upstream.
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As flood tide gives way to ebb tide, both freshwater flow and receding
tide contribute to the movement towards the sea. Pollutants
discharged into such an estuary are mixed with the water and are
gradually diminished in concentration as they are transported back
and forth over many tidal cycles. Ultimately the pollutants are
transported to the open sea.

The study presents the results of the impact of land use on

water quality of a particular estuary. The objective of this study is to
assess water quality characteristics of the Vellar estuary at no fresh
water flow condition from the river into the estuary under very limited
land use.

Emphasis is placed in this research on the presentation of the

best-selected Mathematical model with selected water quality
parameters. The results are particularly pertinent to the lower reach
of Vellar estuary.

1.3 Special features of the estuarine environment

The estuary defies precise definition, but is generally considered
to include the following properties (Ketchum, 1951: Stommel, 1951;
Pritchard, 1952; 1967a; Cameron and Pritchard, 1965; Officer,
1976: Orlando, et al., 1993):

1. Coastal waterbody
2. Semi enclosed
3. Free connection to open sea
4. Influx of sea water
5. Freshwater influx
6. Small to intermediate scale
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The important inference is that an estuary is a complex

watercourse that is transitional between a purely riverine system and
the one that is purely marine. Therefore an estuary is governed by
hydrographic processes that are both riverine and marine (e.g., floods
and tides, respectively). It is also subjected to processes that are
unique to the esturine environment, originating from the interaction of
marine and riverine influences and its semi enclosed morphology.
Estuaries tend to be broad, well circulated systems. There is usually a
clear zonation in morphology and habitats with distance from the sea,
tending from being deep, saline, and well- aerated near the main inlet
to the sea, to shallow, brackish and poorly flushed in the reaches. The
principal hydrographic features of an estuary are:

1. Morphology and bathymetry

2. Hydrology
3. Tides
4. Meteorology
5. Density currents.

The hydrographic characteristics of an estuary or a segment of

an estuarine system can often be judged by determining the relative
influence of these factors.

Morphology, the shape of the estuary, is a reflection of the

processes forming and maintaining the system, usually on a geological
time and space scale. Bathymetry refers to the submerged
physiography of the estuary, i.e., its depths and patterns of deep and
shoal areas within the system. The mouth or inlet to the sea is one of
the fundamental morphological controls, since it determines the
exchange with the sea. Littoral sand supply and riverine sediment
loads further establish patterns of shoal areas that are sculpted and
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shaped by waves and currents. Many estuaries include extensive delta

regions created by the sediment load of rivers.

By definition, an estuary includes a riverine inflow. Inflow

affects the hydrography of the estuary by establishing a gradient of
salinity across the system and further influences water quality by its
associated influx of constituents of terrestrial origin, frequently
including human waste loads. Both the magnitude and time sequence
of inflow are important in the overall estuarine hydrography. Some
systems have highly timevariant inflows, ranging over several orders of
magnitude, while others have relatively steady inflows. When there is
a prominent seasonality in the freshwater inflow, the character of the
estuary can change greatly from the lowflow to the high-flow season.
(An extreme example is the estuaries of India, e.g. the Vellar, which
shifts with the monsoon from pure freshwater systems to pure
seawater). It is important to recognize that the inflow feature of an
estuary enlarges the geographical area of concern to encompass the
entire watershed of the feeding rivers, which may entail a completely
different hydroclimatology than that of the coastal region in which the
estuary is located.

The tide is, of course, the most obvious marine influence on

estuarine hydrography. The ocean margin tide range itself is a great
variable around the earth, from a few centimeters to several meters
and may also vary in its basic periodicity from semidiurnal (12.4
hours) to diurnal (24.8 hours), frequently with longer period intertidal
variability. As the tide propagates into the estuary it is generally
attenuated and lagged by the frictional energy loss associated with the
shallow, constricted watercourse, though there may be regions whose
morphology amplifies the tidal range.
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Because estuaries are semi enclosed coastal systems, they tend

to be responsive to meteorological forcing, of which the wind is the
most important agent. Even fjords are subjected to pronounced wind
forcing (e.g. Dooley, 1979), but this is especially true of those
estuaries that are broad and relatively shallow. Wind generates steep
short-crested waves that can become efficacious mixing agents. On a
larger scale, wind can generate autonomous circulations (gyres) within
the estuary. Suddenly varying winds can induce wind tides by
effecting a tilt in the water surface across the estuary and an abrupt
water level differential between the estuary and the adjacent sea.
Estuaries are additionally subjected to the variety of meteorological
conditions peculiar to the coastal zone, including tropical storms and
sea – land breezes.

The density current is perhaps the least obvious and most

poorly understood of the principal estuarine controls, but it is a basic
element of estuarine circulation. This is the current generated by a
horizontal difference in density. In an estuary, this arises from the
horizontal salinity gradient, more saline water being denser than fresh
water. Essentially, the density current is the flow of denser water
displacing lighter water, but modulated by mixing process and the
shape of the estuary. In a longitudinal estuary, this is manifested as a
mean circulation directed upstream in the lower layer and
downstream in the upper. In broader systems, such as lagoons and
bays, the density current can be manifested as a flow directed
upstream in the deeper sections of the estuary, compensated by a
seaward return flow in the shallower sections. The density current is
the prime vehicle for salinity intrusion and often establishes a
dynamic equilibrium with the steady freshwater inflow from the river.
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While estuaries provide many subsidies that enhance both

ecological and economic production, their environments are also very
dynamic. For survival of biota, salinity, light, water depth,
temperature, and dissolved oxygen are among the most influential
environmental parameters, each of which is subject to wide variation
in the estuary. Tides and winds produce large changes in water level,
which leave intertidal organisms alternately submerged and exposed
to air, and alter the light available to plants and animals on the
bottom. Excursions in river flow, wind and sea level create especially
wide swings in salinity. The variations in environment found at any
one spot in estuaries can be difficult for sedentary species to live in
estuaries, though those that do, like oysters and marsh grasses, may
be very productive because of the energy subsidies they receive.

Although motile animals may pass through a wide range of

environments when going from place to place, their mobility allows
them to avoid extremes that must be withstood by sedentary
organisms. Hence, more kinds of motile animals live in estuaries, and
a wide variety of seasonal migrants visit to take advantage of the
productive food and cover. The transient population, in particular,
whose migration into the estuary is linked to specific life cycle stages,
is a major feature of the estuarine ecosystem. Some species are
anadromous, like salmon, immigrating to the estuary to spawn.
Others, like shrimp and many finfish, spawn offshore, and the young
(larvae, postlarvae, or juveniles) immigrate into the estuary to develop
in the protected, nutrientrich habitats. This nursery function of
estuaries is essential for many commercial species that are in fact
harvested in the open sea. Ecological management of estuaries often
reduces to a focus on habitat: the combination of water quality, bed
characteristics (including sediment) and flora that support general
types of aquatic communities.
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1.4 An overview of water resources management in estuaries

Management, in this context, involves gaining and exercising
some degree of physical and political control over the major
environmental influences of the estuary in order to achieve a
prescribed objective. In a larger scale this includes control over the
estuary boundary conditions: the quantity of freshwater inflow and
the size and shape of the inlet throat. It can include development of
the estuary for navigation and shipping, operation of petrochemical
wells, installation of protective structures for storm surges, and use of
estuary water for industrial supply. Control over water quality and
habitat within the estuary can also be important for many objectives,
such as preserving estuary fisheries while allowing waste discharges.

Because estuaries are the physical interface of watersheds and

the ocean, they typically exist in a complex political environment
consisting of numerous public agencies and private interests either
promoting specialized needs or imposing, perhaps inadvertently,
impacts on the estuary. With management control comes conflict
among objectives, and the usual management problem is to achieve a
compromise. This requires quantitative methods, based upon cause –
and – effect relations.

1.5 Distribution of water quality in estuaries

Estimating the time and spatial behavior of water quality in
estuaries is complicated by the effects of the tidal motion as described
above. The upstream and downstream currents produce substantial
variation of water quality at certain points in the estuary and the
calculation of such variation is indeed a complicated problem. Some
simplification can, however, be made which provide some remarkably
useful results in estimating the distribution of estuarine water quality.
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The simplifications can be summarized through the following

assumptions:

1. Estuary is one dimensional.

2. Water quality is described as a type of average condition over a
number of tidal cycles
3. Area, flow, and reaction rates are constant with distance
4. Estuary is a steady state condition.

A water body is considered to be an one dimensional estuary

when it is subjected to tidal reversals (i.e., reversals in direction of the
water velocity) where only the longitudinal gradient of a particular
water quality parameter is dominant.

In order to construct a model of a non-conservative variable, a

mass balance around an element of the estuary can be performed.
Before this is actually attempted, however, it is useful to reorient one’s
view of the time scale of interest, the final equation can be simplified
by considering the time scale to be composed of tidal cycle units.
Thus, the mass balance and subsequent model equation will be
thought of as representing the water quality of the estuary over a
sequence of tidal cycles. In other words, the models will not attempt to
describe variations in water quality within a tidal cycle, but only from
one tidal cycle to the next. Models that follow the time and space
distribution of a variable from hour to hour can also be constructed
and, for some problem contexts (e.g., highly transient storm water
overflows), may be necessary. These models usually require large
amounts of computer time for simulations. A considerable amount of
insight into estuarine behavior can be obtained, however, by averaging
tidal conditions with full recognition of the importance of within-tide
variations.
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When the system is viewed on a tidal cycle basis, the tidal

reversal phenomenon introduces a relatively large amount of mixing.
This can be visualized by considering the instantaneous discharge of a
colored dye into an estuary at a time of zero velocity, say slack water
before the ebb tide. As ebb tide begins, the dye proceeds downstream,
and gradually is dispersed due to lateral and vertical velocity
gradients. At the end of the ebb tide, the entire mass will halt and
begin to return upstream on the flood tide. In the process, different
particles will proceed at varying velocities. The mass of dye (now
further spread out) will then return upstream toward the point of
injection but the centroid of the mass will usually not return to the
exact location of the injection point. The difference between the
centroid of mass at the end of the tidal cycle is a measure of the time
it takes to “flush” the estuary and reflects the discharge of freshwater
into the upper end of the estuary.

In addition to this mixing, density differences in the more saline

portion of the estuary may further add to the mixing process. This
occurs because of the tendency for liquids of unequal density to
induce water movements as the heavier water settles and lighter water
rises. This overall phenomenon of mixing due to the temporal
variation of tidal velocity, lateral and vertical gradients in velocity, and
density differences is termed tidal dispersion. This dispersive
mechanism is central to the analysis of estuarine water quality.

1.6 Objectives of present study

Water-quality surveillance and monitoring programmes can be
carried out without reference to any specific pollution problem. The
information gathered in this way constitutes the basis for the
enforcement programmes needed to maintain water-quality standards
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and permits future assessment of the impact of resources exploitation

and of possible management alternatives.

In addition, such programmes are essential for the control of

spills of hazardous material into watercourses. These may take the
form of a sudden discharge of toxic matter resulting from malfunction,
collision, fire, or human error in connection with rail, road or water
transport or` with stationary sources, such as manufacturing or
storage facilities. The hazardous material may be discharged directly
into a watercourse, may flow or be washed into sewers and drainage
channels, or may percolate ground water supplies.

Under pristine conditions, that is, in the absence of human

civilisation and development, the chemical composition of inland
stream and lake waters is, ideally, controlled by the alteration of rock
minerals through chemical weathering processes, which liberate
soluble products. These processes in turn are controlled or influenced
by climatic factors such as rainfall, air temperature, and evaporation
and by associated biological or biochemical processes, such as
photosynthesis and transpiration by plants, decay of vegetative debris,
and the effects of aquatic life processes. Circulation of essential
nutrient elements, including carbon, sulfur, chlorine and nitrogen,
generally are bound to elemental oxygen from the atmosphere and
provides most ionic species occuring in natural water, such as
bicarbonate, sulphate, chloride, and nitrate. Other constituents of
natural surface waters, including calcium, magnesium, sodium and
potassium, can be correlated in general with the chemical composition
of rocks and soils in a given drainage basin and are found as principal
cationic species and are in electrochemical balance with anions in
these waters.
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Management of water quality in estuaries is complicated owing

to the diversity of sources of pollution and the complex natural
phenomena involved. Moreover estuaries often involve several
jurisdictions of local, regional and provincial governments of several
states, which have complicated agreements on action plans.

Accurate prediction of the long-range effects of construction,

pollution, dredging and regulation of fresh water flow upon the
delicate ecosystems of estuaries require the use of models based on
fundamental, physical, chemical, sedimentalogical and biological
processes. With this in mind the author has taken up the study of
important chemical processes and the modeling of estuary with no
freshwater inflow condition.

The future is the concern of every technologist. It pervades all

their decisions. Forecasts are required because many of the positions
cannot be modified at a later date as they are irreversible.

If they can be modified and the uncertainties of the future are

there-by reduced by introducing flexibility, this alternative must be
explored first, but in many cases this is impossible and the decision
must be based upon a view of the future obtained with the assistance
of forecast. These cannot guarantee success but can be expected to
result in better decisions which would have been made without them.

Forecasting is only possible as the forces shaping the future

tend to evolve in a regular fashion. Thus what has happened in the
past provides a powerful indication of what will occur in the future. In
order to do this, two things are necessary. First and foremost is that
one need to have good systematically collected past data. Secondly,
one has to know how best to fit the data collected.
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The objective is to develop a time series database of different

parameters, which can be analysed to forecast the future trend and
nature of the estuarine environmental quality. The detailed objectives
are

i. Measurement of water quality such as alkalinity, calcium,

chloride, electrical conductivity, fluoride, hardness, iron as
Fe, nitrate, pH, sulphate, total dissolved solids and turbidity
on weekly basis during pre monsoon period.
ii. Creation of time series models from the data for each
chemical parameter obtained by conventional sampling
technique.
iii. Forecasting of each water quality parameter for one
particular year.
iv. Prediction of water quality trend to certain length of the
estuary from the sea to the upstream of the estuary.

The work reported here was carried out in the following phases as
detailed below:

i. Review of literature pertaining to this study.

ii. Experimental measurement of chemical quality of estuarine
water.
iii. Theoretical prediction of chemical parameter concentrations
after choosing a Time Series Model and relevant parameters.
iv. Model validation using experimental observations and
theoretical predictions.
v. Water quality forecasting and trend prediction for the Vellar
estuary from the river mouth to the upstream.