Rosário, R.P., Borba, T.A.C., Santos, A.S., and Rollnic, M., 2016. Variability of Salinity in Pará River Estuary: 2D Analysis with Flexible Mesh Model. In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 128–132. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

This research aims to study the spatial and temporal variability of the salinity in the Pará River Estuary. The Pará River estuary is among the largest in Brazil, with a mouth of approximately 60 km wide. The Pará River is not a true river because it does not have a spring, but is a hydrographic mesh that receives outflow of several water bodies. There is an ingestion of salt in the Pará River Estuary, different of what occurs within Amazon River, that leads estuarine characteristics onto the continental shelf. The model was implemented based on flexible mesh in the estuarine area of the Amazon River and Pará River basin for one-year simulation. The software D-Flow FM was used to perform hydrodynamic model and, D3D-D-Waq to water quality model. These experiments support a conceptual description of haline dynamics of this system to produce information regarding different scenarios in the region. Fieldworks were made (25h - three points in estuary) in low, high, and transitional rivers discharge in order to evaluate the model performance. The main conclusions are: the numerical modeling showed an upstream saline intrusion about 130 km for the dry period (October to December) and about 70 km for the rainy period (January to May). 2D barotropic condition shows river discharge as the most important force that control the variation of saline intrusion due to the reduction of freshwater flow in the system.