Tides, sea-level rise and tidal power extraction on the European shelf

Abstract

An established numerical tidal model has been used to investigate the impact of various sea-level rise (SLR) scenarios, as well as SLR in combination with large-scale tidal power plants on European shelf tidal dynamics. Even moderate and realistic levels of future SLR are shown to have significant impacts on the tidal dynamics of the area. These changes are further enhanced when SLR and tidal power plants are considered in combination, resulting in changes to tidal amplitudes, currents and associated tidal dissipation and bed shear stresses. Sea-level rise is the dominant influence on any far-field impacts, whereas tidal power plants are shown to have the prevailing influence over any changes close to the point of energy extraction. The spatial extent of the impacts of energy extraction is shown to be affected by the sea level when more than one tidal power plant in the Irish Sea was considered. Different ways to implement SLR in the model are also discussed and shown to be of great significance for the response of the tides.

Sea level rise impact in residual circulation in Tagus estuary and Ria de Aveiro lagoon

“…The way of SLR implemented in the models could lead to qualitatively different results ( Pelling et al, 2013a;Pelling and Green, 2013;Ward et al, 2012 ) . Pickering et al ( 2012 ) using a drying and flooding cell to study the effects of SLR with 2m and 10m on European shelf, found that the tidal amplitude effects was complex and non-linear to SLR.…”

“…On the European shelf Pickering et al (2012) found that tidal response of M 2 is nonlinear to future SLR with spatial variation in amplitude. Ward et al (2012) studied the different effects of the way of SLR implemented in the model, flooding could intensify the response caused by SLR ( Pelling and Green, 2013) , the main difference of tidal response was found in the Bohai Bay and Liaodong Bay between flood and no-flood, but very small difference between flood and partial-flood ( Pelling et al, 2013b ) . Gong et al ( 2012 ) studied the effects of sea level rise on Yangtze estuary and found that tidal wave changed slightly in nearshore areas.…”

“…Except for these direct effect of increased high water level, on longer term scale SLR could influence tidal system ( Pelling et al, 2013a;2013b;Pickering et al, 2012; . The basic physical consequence to such changes is the variation in tidal dynamics ( Chu-Agor et al, 2011;Muller et al, 2011;Pickering et al, 2012;Poulos et al, 2009;Snoussi et al, 2009;Ward et al, 2012 ) . Some studies have shown that SLR has a direct effect on coastal tides.…”

Tidal Current Power Resources and Influence of Sea-Level Rise in the Coastal Waters of Kinmen Island, Taiwan

“…This straightforward approach has been widely adopted to investigate the effects of SLR on coastal hydrodynamics and tidal energy resources [19,44,49,50]. TCP outputs were also calculated by Equations (6) and (7) Figure 10b).…”

“…All boundary and bathymetry conditions are kept constant except for increasing the water depth by 0.25 m, 0.5 m, 0.75 m and 1.0 m over the entire computational domain and open boundaries. This straightforward approach has been widely adopted to investigate the effects of SLR on coastal hydrodynamics and tidal energy resources [19,44,49,50]. TCP outputs were also calculated by Equations (6) and (7) with an incremental t C , a cut-in speed of 0.…”