| Abstract: |
The West and Rhode River sub-estuary has been deteriorating due to high nutrient and sediment loads. The West/Rhode Riverkeeper has tasked a Systems Engineering senior design student team to evaluate a number potential remediation measures that have been identified that could reduce nutrient and sediment runoff into the sub-estuary. The team has developed a broad-based utility function to perform this prioritization. The team has also added the enhancement of several existing oyster beds, that have been under development over the last several years, as an option to this prioritization analysis. In order to estimate the relative effects of the proposed mitigation measures, a 15 zone tidal nutrient transport model was developed. The model uses tide height as an input and predicts fluid transport into and out of the sub-estuary for up to 28 days. The poster submitted will show the final weights of the utility function and details of the fluid transport model that could be used for future studies of nutrient and sediment transport by the Riverkeeper. |
