Modification of tidal resonance in the Severn Estuary by a barrage and lagoon

Journal article

Abstract:: The Bristol Channel/Severn Estuary has some of the largest tides in the world with a mean spring tidal range of 12.2 m. Numerous proposals have been made to exploit this for energy extraction. However, the large tidal range is partially driven by tidal resonance and such systems can be sensitive to small changes. Thus, it is important to understand the impact of a barrage on the resonance of the system which in turn leads to an understanding of the environmental impact of building a barrage. In this paper, we examine the resonant response of the Bristol Channel system, with and without a barrage structure deployed, using a depth-averaged numerical model. We find that the barrage can alter the response of the Bristol Channel to excitation with higher frequencies than 12 h. However, the barrage causes very little change to the resonant response for longer periods including for the semi-diurnal periods which dominate the tides in the region. We also briefly examine the Swansea Lagoon scheme and find that this is too small to have a significant impact on the resonant response of the channel.

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Publisher:: Springer
Journal:: Journal of Ocean Engineering and Marine Energy More from this journal
Volume:: 6
Issue:: 2
Pages:: 171-181
Publication date:: 2020-06-09
Acceptance date:: 2020-05-15
DOI:: 10.1007/s40722-020-00166-8
EISSN:: 2198-6452
ISSN:: 2198-6444

Copyright holder:: Ma and Adcock
Rights statement:: Copyright © 2020, The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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