An Integrated Modeling System for Simulating Circulation and Water Quality in Florida
Bay and Biscayne Bay
Y. Peter Sheng and Justin R. Davis
Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering Program, University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida 32611-6580
pete@coastal.ufl.edu, davis@coastal.ufl.edu
ABSTRACT
This paper presents an integrated modeling system, CH3D-IMS, based on the 3-D
curvilinear grid circulation model CH3D and includes additional wave model, sediment
transport model, water quality model, light attenuation model, and seagrass model. The
CH3D model, originally developed by Sheng in 1986 and significantly enhanced at the
University of Florida, has recently undergone major improvements to allow accurate and
efficient simulation of circulation in complex estuarine and coastal environment such as
Florida Bay. Four model aspects will be presented: (1)a robust algorithm for simulating
wetting and drying of the shoreline and mudbanks in Florida Bay, (2)an accurate highorder advective scheme for simulating salinity and water quality transport, (3)parallel
algorithm to allow efficient long-term simulations, and (4)coupling with a groundwater
model. Example model simulations using the new modeling system will be compared
with previous simulations using the earlier version of CH3D.