Hydrodynamics and water renewal in the Pearl River Estuary, China: A numerical study from the perspective of water age

The time required for water renewal in an estuary is closely related to its self-purification ability and environment degree. A FVCOM-based water age (WA) model was conducted to investigate the renewal timescale in the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) under various hydrodynamic scenarios. Model sensitivities revealed the depth averaged WA during the summer was significantly smaller than that during the winter; meanwhile, the region with vertically significant variations in the WA varied from almost the whole estuary to the downstream. It can be explained that the seaward residual currents became stronger and narrowed the region of vertical circulations by impeding salinity invasion and stratification. During typhoon Hagupit, the depth-averaged WA was apparently increased in the most of the estuary because the horizontal water circulations between the estuary and open sea were significantly decreased by the strong up-estuary surge-waves. Moreover, the vertical WA distribution almost became a single-layer structure with the severely weakened vertical circulations. After reclamations, the variable shorelines in the PRE significantly affected the hydrodynamic characteristics and water circulations, thus the depth-averaged WA complicatedly changed, and the vertical difference of the WA values slightly increased in narrowed waterways and their downstream due to the limited effects on the vertical circulations.