Sewage Outfall Plume Dispersion Observations with an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2004

Authors

A. Ramos (Author) FEUP; Sérgio Reis Cunha (Author) FEUP; Mário Valente Neves (Author) FEUP; Fernando Lobo Pereira (Author) FEUP; Carla Barreto (Author) FEUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: 4th World Water Congress

Pages: 283-290

Marrakech, Marrocos, 19 a 24 de Setembro de 2004

Indexing

ISI Web of Science

Scopus

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Electrical engineering, Electronic engineering, Information engineering

CORDIS: Technological sciences

Other information

DOI: 10.2166/wst.2005.0485

Abstract (EN): This work represents one of the first successful applications of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for interdisciplinary coastal research. A monitoring mission to study the shape and estimate the initial dilution of the S. Jacinto sewage outfall plume using an AUV was performed on July 2002. An efficient sampling strategy enabling greater improvements in spatial and temporal range of detection demonstrated that the sewage effluent plume can be clearly traced using naturally occurring tracers in the wastewater. The outfall plume was found at the surface highly influenced by the weak stratification and low currents. Dilution varying with distance downstream was estimated from the plume rise over the outfall diffuser until a nearly constant value of 130:1, 60 m from the diffuser, indicating the near field end. Our results demonstrate that AUVs can provide high-quality measurements of physical properties of effluent plumes in a very effective manner and valuable considerations about the initial mixing processes under real oceanic conditions can be further investigated. © IWA Publishing 2005.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 8