Turbulent diffusion and pollutant transport in shoreline enviroments.

Abstract

The literature on pollutant diffusios is reviewed, taking examples from the author's own observations on the American Great Lakes. The evaluation of diffusion and transport properties are said to be extremely difficult. Turbulence intensities over water surfaces for the simplest cases are first discussed under, neutral, unstable and stable conditions, and experimental observations (with illustrations) are reported. The authors own model for conductive inversions layers is reported in some detail. Diffusion during gradient onshore flows is discussed and the mechanism of 'plum trapping' explained continuous (dynamic) fumization caused by turbulence under an internal boundary layer is illustrated, and models for point source continuous fumization are reported. A example is taken for a coal burning power plant at Wankegan, Illinois. A further model, similar to the Gaussian steady-state approach, but specifically designed for shoreline fumigation, is the GLUMP model. Data from a field programme on the Lake Michigan shoreline are reported in order to validate and calibrate the GLUMP model. This model is then extended to cover fumization over an entire region. A description of lake and sea breezes loads to pollution patterns, and some specific lake breeze patterns are studied. Long range over-water transport and transport of photochemical pollutants are dealt with briefly. 161 references. (I.F.)