ABSTRACT

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of ocean structures has become very important for the sustainable development of the ocean because human activity has increased with emergence of various types of these structures. To analyze, evaluate and predict environmental changes not only on flows, water temperature and salinity but also on water quality and the ecosystems around an ocean structure and its neighborhood, a new numerical approach is required for large-scale changes in space and long-term changes in time. A hybrid-model consisting of a full 3D model near an ocean structure and a hydrostatic primitive model in a wider area of the ocean may be a practical solution for this purpose. Some existing primitive models for physical ocean environments and a biological-physical cycle model for water quality in the ocean are introduced with their features. Finally, the numerical results of the mussel effects on the water quality around a Mega-Float in Tokyo Bay are presented as an example of EIA of ocean structures.

INTRODUCTION

Relating to the global warming and some other environmental problems, general citizens are more interested in the environmental problems. Although they can actually see only coastal area or a part of the sea, some of them have a strong interest in the ocean environment problems such as wetland, corals, whales, dugongs et al. Actual ocean, however, is not so simple, because it relates to the meteorology such as radiation of sun, wind, rain, waves, tidal current, river discharge, salinity, the complex bathymetry and so on from the physical point of view. Furthermore, water quality is determined by the chemical and biological effects of the ecosystem including phytoplankton, zooplankton, and floating inorganic and organic matters. Numerical approaches have been attempted to simulate the water quality, but they rather remain still in the simple level.

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