Improved Understanding of Sediment Dynamics for the Coos Estuary

September 29, 2021 - Designated one of Oregon’s three “deep draft development” estuaries, the Coos estuary has many diverse users who share a need for better information about water and sediment flows through the estuary under current and future conditions. Working closely with the South Slough NERR and the Partnership for Coastal Watersheds, a local stakeholder group, researchers from the University of Oregon and the University of North Carolina helped to address some of these informational needs. The team collected new data, including the first bathymetric dataset to cover the entire Coos estuary, and developed a hydrodynamic model to better understand and predict estuarine water and sediment flows. They then worked with end users to develop data and modeling products of interest, including two perturbation experiments analyzing a proposed deepening and widening of the estuary’s main navigation channel. In this webinar, members of the project team discuss the end-user engagement approach used in their collaborative research project, present highlights from the model experiments, and share observations from an examination of historic estuary conditions prior to human impacts. Speakers: David Sutherland, University of Oregon Emily Eidam, University of North Carolina Jenni Schmitt, South Slough NERR David Ralston, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution View resources related to the webinar: https://nerrssciencecollaborative.org... Learn more about the project: https://nerrssciencecollaborative.org... Join our mailing list for updates: http://eepurl.com/gijKMz | RSS: https://nerrssciencecollaborative.org... -- 00:00 - Intro 04:55 - Management context | Jenni Schmitt 09:05 - Presentation overview | David Sutherland 10:45 - Developing the hydrodynamic model 19:21 - Incorporating sediment into the model 21:32 - Historical changes to estuarine shoreline 25:00 - Historical changes to the estuarine area and volume | Emily Eidam 32:40 - Stakeholder and end user engagement | David Sutherland 34:58 - Next steps for new projects 38:24 - Summary and lessons learned 41:44 - Q&A | What is the source for the bathymetry? 43:37 - Q&A | Was the salinity related to sediment dynamics? 44:41 - Q&A | Were you able to look outside the estuary mouth to the ocean? 46:05 - Q&A | How does diking influence sediment flow? 48:11 - Q&A | Were you able to model mudflat erosion? 49:54 - Q&A | What does it take to run the model? 52:38 - Q&A | What is your takeaway for impacts from channel widening? 56:14 - Q&A | Expected changes to dynamics for maintenance dredging and channel widening?