In this work a comparative analysis of a turbulent jet experiment produced by the injection of dyed water into a shallow tank filled with water of the same density and the results of a numerical modelare presented. Dye was injected with the source fluid as a tracer. The concentration of the dye in the shallow turbulent flow was determined using a video imaging technique.The present laboratory experiments were conducted in a tank of small depth, and it is significantly wide to avoid the effect of the side walls. The space between the parallel walls of the tank can be varied during the experiments. The large-scale turbulent flow in the water sheet between the walls of the tank is confined to essentially two-dimensional motion. The shear on the bottom of the tank is a momentum sink to be considered.A comparison of the numerical resultswith the experimental data showed a very good agreement in terms of the position reached by the jet at different times after injection is initialized. These findings are useful for turbulent modeling of the shallow shear flow and for application to the large scale heat and mass exchange processes in lagoons, lakes, the ocean and the atmosphere