The Scheldt estuary is a large-scale estuary in the south-west part of the Netherlands. Theestuary is connected to the Scheldt river, which originates in the north-west of France. Thetotal length of the Scheldt river including the estuary is about 350 km; the tide penetrates upto the city of Gent in Belgium (about 180 km from the mouth). The length of the estuary isabout 60 km (up to Bath). The cross-sections of the estuary show two to three deeperchannels with shoals in between and tidal flats close to the banks. The width of the mouth atWestkapelle (The Netherlands) is about 20 to 25 km and gradually decreases to about 0.8 kmat Antwerp.Analytical and numerical models have been used to study the effects of water depth,planform, abrupt changes of the cross-section and tidal storage on the tidal range along theScheldt estuary.Finally, the relative importance of the terms of the equations of continuity and momentum ofthe linearized analytical model for a converging tidal channel as applied to the Scheldtestuary has been studied. The numerical model (DELFT2DH-model) results of water levelsand depth-averaged velocities in the Scheldt estuary have been analyzed to estimate thecontribution of the slope term and the frictional term in various channel sections. |
