Numerical investigation of the effects of aquatic plants on wind-induced currents in Taihu Lake in China

Shallow lakes are an important part of the earth's water circulation system, and many factors may impact the evolution of the lake water circulation, including the wind, the topography, the human activities, and the aquatic plants. This paper proposes a depth-averaged 2-D hydrodynamic model to investigate the interaction of the wind-induced current and the aquatic plant in the lake. The model is based on the generalized shallow water equations solved by an explicit finite volume method with unstructured triangular grids. The drag force of the vegetation is considered into the momentum equations as the source term. Remote sensing techniques are applied to evaluate the aquatic vegetation in the Taihu Lake, China, based on Landsat TM satellite images. The study model is then used to simulate the characteristics of the wind-induced currents in the Taihu Lake, without and with the vegetation effects. The simulation results are in good agreement with the field measurements, demonstrating that the aquatic plants significantly affect the magnitude of the velocity and the flow circulation induced by the wind in the Taihu Lake. In addition, a sensitivity analysis reveals that the plant parameters (the density and the drag force coefficient) are significant factors influencing the velocity and the structure of the currents in the Taihu Lake.