Galveston Bay 3-D model study, channel deepening, circulation and salinity results

Galveston Bay in Texas contains the Houston Ship Channel connecting the port of Houston to the Gulf of Mexico. Due to navigational hazards, the Galveston District Corps of Engineers began proposals to enlarge the channel depth and width. The impact of increased salinity intrusion is the main concern of this project, using oysters as an indicator species. The salinity intrusion study produces salinity and velocity data which are used to drive an ecosystem model to predict oyster production. The model employed for this study is the RMA10-WES model, a Galerkin finite element model for shallow water equations