TIDAL WAVE REFLECTION FROM THE CLOSURE DAM IN THE GUADALQUIVIR

ESTUARY (SW SPAIN)

Manuel Dez-Minguito, University of Granada, mdiezm@ugr.es
Asuncin Baquerizo, University of Granada, abaqueri@ugr.es
Miguel Ortega-Snchez, University of Granada, miguelos@ugr.es
Inmaculada Ruiz, University of Granada, inmaruizparrado@ugr.es
Miguel. . Losada, University of Granada, mlosada@ugr.es
INTRODUCTION
Closure dams in estuaries and tidal areas have a strong
impact on their hydrodynamics and morphology. Among
other reasons, this impact can be due to tidal reflection. In
the Guadalquivir estuary (SW Spain), data measured
allowed to identify a partially standing motion along the
upper third of the estuary. We estimate the frequencydependent reflection coefficients at the head dam, using
sea water elevations measured at two different stretches
of the estuary. We analyze the effect of the combined
action of the incident and reflected tidal waves on
secondary currents and discuss the consequences on the
bed morphology.
STUDY AREA AND MEASUREMENTS
The Guadalquivir estuary is located in the SW of the
Iberian Peninsula, facing to the Gulf of Cdiz. It extends
as far as the Alcal del Ro dam, 110 kms upstream from
the sea at Sanlcar de Barrameda. The dam is the last
monitoring point of the fresh water flow and the
propagation limit of the astronomical tidal wave. Tides are
mesotidal and semidiurnal. The mean water depth along
the estuary is 7m. This depth is maintained by periodic
dredging in order to allow ships to reach the Port of
Seville.
In 2008, a real-time remote monitoring network was
deployed all along the main course of the estuary and the
inner continental shelf (Navarro et al., 2011; DezMinguito et al., 2012). The purpose of the network was to
assess the impact of human intervention and natural
forcings in the morpho-hydrodynamics of the estuary.
PARTIALLY STANDING MOTION AT THE FINAL
STRETCH OF THE ESTUARY
A preliminary analysis of data measured by the network
indicated that the tidal motion is partially standing in the
upper third of the estuary due to wave reflection at the
dam. At this stretch there is a notable increase in the
amplitudes of the diurnal and semidiurnal constituents,
which almost recover the values that they have on the
inner shelf. The overtides increase much further.
To separate the incident wave from the reflected wave for
each constituent, a method that uses a least squares
fitting technique that is based on Mansard and Funke
(1980) was applied (Baquerizo, 1995). The reflection
coefficient R spatially varies with the absolute distance to
the reflector, because of the increase in the dissipation
and inverse shoaling of the reflected wave. Thus, two
sets of three tidal gauges each were used for the
analysis. The first set was located close to the dam, and
the second one was placed far from the main source of
reflection, approximately, 70 km away from the dam.

For the tidal gauges closest to the dam (Fig. 1, solid line),
the magnitude of the reflection coefficient exhibits a
maximum at quarter-diurnal frequencies (|RQ| 0.65 for
M4). For the set placed at a greater distance from the
dam (dashed line), R decreases monotonically from low
to high frequencies (for diurnal, |RD| 0.30; for sixthdiurnal |RX| 0.20). From this figure it can be concluded
that tidal reflection in the dam has a relevant influence on
the dynamics of the upper part of the estuary.

Figure 1. Magnitude (left panel) and phase (right panel) of

the frequency-dependent reflection coefficient R.
Following Carter et al., (1974) and Baquerizo et al.
(1998), the net mass transport velocity associated with
the partially standing motion of the constituents M2 and
M4 was also obtained. The most relevant result is that the
reflection of the M4 component favors sedimentation in
the area close to the dam, and the reflection of the M2
extends possible sedimentation to the area near the Port
of Seville where the most intense dredging takes place.
REFERENCES
Baquerizo (1995): Wave Reflection on Beaches: Methods
of Assessment and Forecasting, Ph.D. Thesis, University
of Cantabria.
Baquerizo, Losada, Smith (1998): Wave reflection from
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Dez-Minguito, Baquerizo, Ortega-Snchez, Navarro,
Losada (2012): Tide transformation in the Guadalquivir
estuary (SW Spain) and process-based zonation, J.
Geophys. Res., 117, C03019.
Mansard, Funke (1980): The measurement of incident
and reflected spectra using a least squares method, Proc.
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Navarro, Gutierrez, Dez-Minguito, Losada, Ruiz (2011):
Temporal and spatial variability in the Guadalquivir
estuary: A challenge for real-time telemetry, Ocean Dyn.,
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