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www.cafetinnova.org April 2014, P.P.644-650
ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 07, No. 02

Finite Element Modeling of the Pichavaram Estuary

SATHYANATHAN RANGARAJAN AND DEEPTHA THATTAI
Department of Civil Engineering, SRM University, Chennai, INDIA
Email: sathyanathan_r@yahoo.com, vtdeeptha@gmail.com

Abstract: A two dimensional (2-D) hydrodynamic model is applied to study the water surface elevations and tidal
currents in the Pichavaram estuary. The purpose of this study originated from the need to protect and manage
Pichavaram estuary, an ecosystem with great environmental and economic value. The finite element computational
grid is made of 4841 elements with sizes ranging from 143 m2 to 39365 m2. The hydrodynamic model has
reproduced the water level measurements with a relatively high degree of accuracy. Calibration and validation is
also achieved through a comparison of computed tidal harmonics against those derived from harmonic analysis of
the given water level variations at the boundary. Results show that the form number at various locations varies
between 0.3 and 0.4, confirming the semidiurnal nature of the tide. The lunar constituents (M 2 and S2) are dominant
and their amplitudes decrease inside the estuary. The model results show that the semidiurnal components are more
affected than the diurnal components in the interior regions mainly due to their different frequencies.
Keywords: Pichavaram, Hydrodynamic model, Tide, Circulation, Modeling.

1. Introduction:
Pichavaram is situated in the southeast coast of India in
the Tamil Nadu state between latitudes 11o20’ and
11o30’ north and longitudes 79o45’ and 79o55’ east. It
is connected to the Bay of Bengal in the east and
receives freshwater from Uppanar River in the west and
Coleroon River from the south (Figure 1).
Figure1: Location map of Pichavaram (Base map from
Google Earth)
The Pichavaram mangrove forest was declared as a
reserve forest in 1987. The mangrove area consists of a
number of small and large islets traversed by numerous
creeks and canals. It is covered mostly by forest stands
and the rest by mudflats, sandy areas and saline soils.
The total area of the Vellar- Pichavaram -Coleroon
estuarine complex is 2335 ha, of which only 858 ha is
occupied by dense mangrove vegetation[1]. Pichavaram
houses a variety of mangrove species, which provide
habitat for fish and shrimp and support a rich variety of
flora and fauna and are particularly important as resting
and feeding grounds for migratory birds [2]. The local
fishing community depends on the estuary for their
livelihood. The area is considered as “critical habitat” as
it is unique, fragile and exhibits high biodiversity
supporting several coastal and marine plants and
animals. The combined pressure of natural processes
and human activities causes changes in these critical
habitats leading to deterioration of these areas over the
years. In order to protect and manage the estuary the
knowledge on the influencing hydrodynamics is
essential. Though many studies have been carried out in
Pichavaram on its ecology, flora, fauna, water quality
etc, very few circulation studies have been carried out in
this system despite its ecological and economic
importance [3, 4]. In this study an attempt is made to
investigate the hydrodynamics of the Pichavaram
estuarine system by developing a two-dimensional finite
element model.

#02070239 Copyright ©2014 CAFET-INNOVA TECHNICAL SOCIETY. All rights reserved.

 645 S ATHYANATHAN R ANGARAJAN, DEEPTHA T HATTAI

2. Model: Figure 2 and Table 1. These data were also not

simultaneously taken and the datums used for the
The 2-D finite element hydrodynamic model RMA2 of
stations appear to be different. Corresponding to the
the Surface water Modeling System (SMS v11.0) has
availability of field data, the simulation period was
been implemented [5]. Since Pichavaram is a shallow
fixed between 17.02.2000 and 03.03.2000 to calibrate
estuary, 2-D model is used to get reliable hydrodynamic
and validate the model. Also, a minimum of 29 days of
results. RMA2 computes water surface elevations and
simulation is required to capture most of the tidal
horizontal velocity components for free-surface two-
variability.
dimensional flow fields. Friction can be calculated with
the Manning or Chezy equations, and eddy viscosity
coefficients are used to define turbulence
characteristics. The equation of momentum and mass
conservation are solved by the finite element method
using the Galerkin Method of weighted residuals. Both
steady and unsteady (dynamic) problems can be
analysed. The model has been applied to calculate water
levels and flow distribution around islands; circulation
and transport in water bodies with wetlands; and general
water levels and flow patterns in rivers, reservoirs, and
estuaries [6]. RMA2 is not intended to be used for near
field problems where vortices, vibrations, or vertical
accelerations are of primary interest. Vertically
stratified flow effects are beyond the capabilities of
RMA2. The x and y component momentum acceleration
terms and the continuity equation are:

Figure2: Measurement location of tides (Base map

from Google Earth)
where h is depth (m), u and v are component velocities Table1: Measurement duration of tides
along the x and y Cartesian coordinates (ms-1),
respectively; t is time (s); ρ is water density (kg m-3); E Measureme Duration
Station nt Depth
is eddy viscosity (kg m-1 s-1); g is gravity (9.81 m s-2); a
name from From To
is bottom elevation (m); n is Manning's roughness (s m- surface (m)
1/3
); τ is wind stress (kg m-1 s-2); Va is wind speed (ms-1); Chinnavaika
ψ is angle towards which the wind blows (degrees), 0.6 24.02.2000 02.03.2000
l
counter-clockwise with 0o on the positive x-axis; ω is Tourism
0.6 17.02.2000 24.02.2000
the rate of earth's angular rotation (7.29*10 -5 s-1) ; and Φ complex
is latitude (deg). Periyaguda 1.0 17.02.2000 24.02.2000
2.1. Materials and Methods: Peelumedu 1.0 24.02.2000 02.03.2000
Coleroon
Pichavaram is an extremely data scarce area from the 2.0 02.03.2000 03.03.2000
mouth
viewpoint of coastal physical processes. The only Coleroon
available data is from the M. S. Swaminathan Research 1.0 02.03.2000 03.03.2000
feeder
Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai, from their project on
Mangrove Conservation and Management in the Coastal 2.2. Mesh Design:
Wetlands of Tamil Nadu in 1999–2000. They measured The grid for the estuary was generated in SMS.
the variation of tide levels at 30 minute intervals by Digitized map of the study area from 2012 year imagery
installing Aanderaa Self Recording Tide Recorders at of Google Earth, recent bathymetry survey data
six different stations within the estuary. The details of collected during 2013 and the open sea bathymetric data
the measurement locations and duration are shown in extracted from General Bathymetric Chart of the

International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering

ISSN 0974-5904, Vol. 07, No. 02, April, 2014, pp. 644-650
 Finite Element Modeling of the Pichavaram Estuary
Oceans (GEBCO) were imported to SMS, and a finite
element grid was created to represent the estuary
(Figure 3).
Figure3: Mesh for the Pichavaram model
The digitized map from Google Earth was used to
determine the land boundary of the system. Bathymetry
data were interpolated to the developed finite element
mesh of the system. In order to solve better non-linear
effects occurring on the estuary, mesh sizes were
reduced on the main canal and near the tourism complex
station. The digitized contours were then interpolated by
the inverse distance weighted method using the nearest
five points in each quadrant. The final mesh is made of
4841 elements and 10224 nodes with a front width of
377. The average element measures 7938 m2 and the
element areas range from 193 m2 to 39365 m2. The
finite element grid for the system provided the detail
necessary to evaluate accurately the variation in
hydrodynamic properties throughout the estuary.
2.3. Boundary conditions and model calibration:
For model calibration, the sinusoidal curve based on the
tidal water level obtained from WXtide32
(www.wxtide32.com) in Feb 2000 was used to force the
model at Coleroon mouth and Chinnavaikal mouth as
the downstream boundary condition. Since there was no
discharge experienced in Coleroon and Uppanar rivers
the upstream boundary condition is specified as 0 m3/s
(constant) and no slip boundary condition is imposed on
land boundaries. The results were compared with the
field measurements. The measured water level data
from the three interior stations viz. Tourism complex,
Peelumedu, and Periyaguda were used to verify
simulation results. Since the available water level data
for Coleroon mouth and Coleroon feeder was for only
International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering
ISSN 0974-5904, Vol. 07, No. 02, April, 2014, pp. 644-650
646
one day and the Chinnavaikal mouth has shifted
considerably between 2000 and now, these stations were
not considered for calibration. The model was simulated
for 30 days with a time step size of 10 minutes. In order
to define the roughness coefficient for different
materials and Peclet number, a large number of
simulation tests were carried out for different values till
a good agreement was reached between simulated and
observed water levels. Furthermore in order to quantify
the amplitude adjustment the root mean square (RMS)
of the difference between the observed and predicted
data was estimated [7].
Where, and were the observed and the
modeled water surface levels, respectively and N is the
number of measurements in the time series.
In addition, tidal harmonic analysis of the simulated
data at the boundary was performed to obtain the
amplitude and phase of the water surface elevation.
These outputs were compared with tidal harmonics
obtained from the given water level variations at the
boundary. After extensive experimentation, we set the
following parameters: (a) Global roughness value:
0.022, (b) Peclet number: 20, (c) Minimum velocity: 0.3
m/s, (d) Marsh porosity, Transition range of
distribution: 0.6 and (e) Minimum wetted surface area
factor: 0.02. Since the Chinnavaikal mouth was partly
closed a roughness value of 0.025 was assigned. For the
main canal and mangroves a roughness value of 0.02
and 0.078 was adopted.
2.4. Results:
2.4.1. Tidal simulation:
Figure 4 shows the performance of the model in terms
of water surface elevations during February 2000 at
three interior stations within the study area. The
results show a good match between the water surface
elevation obtained from model results and the
measured values and the RMS errors after 30 days of
simulation are only 0.058 m, 0.062 m and 0.066 m at
Tourism complex, Periyaguda and Peelumedu,
respectively. The model has not captured the extreme
peaks of the
 647 S ATHYANATHAN R ANGARAJAN, DEEPTHA T HATTAI

The time series of water levels and velocities for this

period are plotted in Figure 5 and Figure 6,
respectively.

Figure4: Calibration of the model for Feb 2000

observed data but it is difficult to calibrate exactly
given the scattered nature of the data available for
calibration. To analyze the hydrodynamics in the
estuary a simulation run was performed during July-
August 1999 for a 40 day period and the results for
Figure5: Modeled water levels for July-August 1999
the last 30 days were used. Even though this model
stabilized within 5 - 6 days, the first 10 days of
simulation was ignored to minimize the errors. In this
simulation only tidal flux was imposed at Coleroon
and Chinnavaikal mouths. Time series of hourly tidal
velocities and water elevations were extracted for
seven locations in the estuary for further analysis.
Calculated statistics include maximum and minimum
amplitudes, net current speed and net direction.
Table2: Statistics of the modeled water levels and
velocities at seven stations.

Figure6: Modeled velocities for July-August 1999

2.4.2. Tidal data analysis:
Table 3 shows a comparison between tidal
constituents obtained from measured and modeled
time series. This comparison is made for the main
tidal constituents O1 (Principal lunar diurnal), K1
(Lunar diurnal), N2 (Larger lunar elliptic semi
diurnal), M2 (Principal lunar semidiurnal) and S2
(Principal solar semidiurnal). In both the stations the
result shows good agreement between model results
and observed values. The difference between the
modeled and predicted amplitudes for O1, N2 and S2
components are -0.01, 0.02 and 0.01, respectively
while for K1 and M2 the amplitude difference was

International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering

ISSN 0974-5904, Vol. 07, No. 02, April, 2014, pp. 644-650
 Finite Element Modeling of the Pichavaram Estuary
648

nearly zero. The average differences between the
simulated and observed harmonic constituents within
5cm are justifiable.
Table3: Amplitudes (Amp), phases (Pha) and complex
difference module (Diff) of tidal constituents in
Pichavaram
mangroves is consistent with that of mangrove
ecosystems from other studies; a time lag of 3–4 hours
is noticed with reference to the tides given at the
boundary. The tide also shows a pronounced asymmetry
in mangroves as documented by many researchers [10,
11].

To quantify the tidal characteristics of the Pichavaram

estuary, a frequency domain analysis was carried out Figure7: Tidal circulation during simulation period
for the simulated tide time series. The purpose of tidal
analysis was to determine the amplitude and phase of The ebb tide is lower but with a stronger current
the individual cosine waves each of which represents velocity of 0.059 ms-1 compared to the flood tide (0.02
a tidal constituent [8]. The tidal characteristic of the ms-1) (Figure 8). This gives a clear indication that the
study area was identified as semi diurnal using the drag forces induced by mangrove trees greatly reduce
form number as defined by [9]: the flow in the mangrove swamps. The prevalence of
shallow depth and the influence of friction maximize the
current speed at Chinnavaikal. The ebb dominance is
enhanced due to the presence of tidal flats in
Form number is defined as the ratio between main Peelumedu.
diurnal and main semidiurnal components of tide. The
form number at various locations at Pichavaram
varies between 0.3 and 0.4. On this basis the general
tidal regime in the study area can be classified as
predominantly semidiurnal.
2.5. Discussion:
When the tide is the only forcing function, the analysis
of flow into Pichavaram creek system reveals that the
stations Coleroon feeder, Peelumedu, Periyaguda and
Tourism complex are influenced by the tidal flow from
the Coleroon river mouth. The influence of tidal flow
through Chinnavaikal mouth is limited to a shorter reach
within Periyaguda (Figure 7). The average flow
direction is predominantly southwest except in
mangroves and Tourism complex where it was Figure8: Water level and velocity during pre-monsoon
northwest (Table 2). The station shown as mangroves and monsoon periods for mangroves
here is only a reference station shown for analysis. The
magnitude and direction of currents at other places Harmonic analysis of the tide shows an insignificant
inside the mangroves will vary depending on the reduction in the range for predominant species of tidal
location. However, the water level variability in constituents between Coleroon mouth and Peelumedu

International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering

ISSN 0974-5904, Vol. 07, No. 02, April, 2014, pp. 644-650
 649 S ATHYANATHAN R ANGARAJAN, DEEPTHA T HATTAI
(Figure 9). The reason for little or no attenuation is that
the channel, which extends from the Coleroon mouth to
Peelumedu, provides a smooth path for tidal flow to and
from the Bay of Bengal.
Figure9: Amplitude and Phase variation of major tidal
constituents
It can be seen that the ranges of the major tidal
constituents tend to decrease due to friction in the
interior stations viz. Periyaguda, Tourism complex and
in Mangroves. The model results show that the
semidiurnal components are more affected than the
diurnal components, mainly due to their different
frequencies.
Figure10: Amplitude and Phase variation of shallow
tidal constituents
From Figure 10, it can be seen that the amplitude and
phase variations of the tidal constituents towards the
upstream regions are linear, which is a strong indication
of the absence of a reflected wave in the estuary [12].
International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering
ISSN 0974-5904, Vol. 07, No. 02, April, 2014, pp. 644-650
Hence the tidal attenuation in the interior regions can be
mainly attributed to friction as mentioned above. The
magnitudes of high frequency M4 overtides compound
tides and a forced low frequency MSf constituent
remain constant in Periyaguda and Tourism complex
and the magnitudes of MSf (Lunisolar synodic
fortnightly constituent) and Mm (Lunar monthly
constitutent) increase in Mangrove region. Nearly
constant amplitude and a linear increase in amplitude of
compound tides show the linear nature of the
Pichavaram estuary system to the tidal forcing. The
amplitude ratio of M4/M2 is 0.059 at Periyaguda and
0.063 at Tourism complex. This marginal increase
shows that the tide does not get distorted much between
these stations whereas at Mangroves, the tide gets
completely distorted as evident from the high amplitude
ratio of 0.25.
2.6. Conclusion:
In this paper, the RMA2 model has been used in order
to simulate the hydrodynamic conditions in the
Pichavaram estuary. Spatial and temporal comparison
between the measured water level and the model result
demonstrates a good performance of the hydrodynamic
model. Tidal regime in the study area is predominantly
semidiurnal. The propagation of tide into the creek
system reveals that most of the interior stations are
dominated by the tidal flow from the Coleroon river
mouth and the influence of tidal flow through
Chinnavaikal mouth is limited to a shorter reach. The
tide shows a pronounced asymmetry inside the
mangrove region, with a time lag of 3–4 hours with
reference to the tides given at the boundary. Tidal
analysis of the measured data and model results show a
reduction of amplitude of semidiurnal components in
the interior regions. The estuary exhibits linear nature to
tidal forcing and very less tidal distortion was noticed
inside the estuary except in mangroves.
3. Acknowledgements:
The authors would like to thank MSSRF for providing
the data and are very grateful to Aquaveo for providing
license to access SMS/RMA2 model to conduct this
research. Thanks are due to Dr.R. Saravanan, Assistant
Professor, and Center for Water Resources, Anna
University, Chennai-25 for giving critical comments
and useful suggestions in improving this paper. The
authors would like to thank Dr. D. Venkat Reddy,
Editor-in-chief, IJEE in accepting the manuscript for
publication.
4. Reference:
[1] MSSRF, 2007–2008, 18th Annual Report, M.S.
Swaminathan Research Foundation, Taramani,
Chennai, India.
 Finite Element Modeling of the Pichavaram Estuary
650

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International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering

ISSN 0974-5904, Vol. 07, No. 02, April, 2014, pp. 644-650