Modeling Concepts - Coastal Lagoons: Ecosystem Processes and Modeling for Sustainable Use and Development - page 250

1. The watershed parameter P wsh showing the specific freshwater capacity

of the lagoon watershed:

Q
S

P =

riv

wsh

wsh

where Q riv is the freshwater river run-off [m 3 a −1 ] and S wsh is the catchment

area of the lagoon [m 2 ].

2. The water budget components contribution, . A comparison of abso-

lute values of water budget components for different lagoons means noth-
ing without comparing how each component influences the lagoon
behavior. There are two approaches to derive corresponding specific
parameters to evaluate the effect of these individual components: (1) by
dividing each by the area of lagoon and (2) by dividing each by the
volume of the lagoon. The first set of parameters illustrates the effect of
each component on the level variation:

p i WB

S lag

Q
S

WB

p = lag

i

i

where is the i th budget component. The dimension of these parameters
is [m s −1 ].

Q i

The second set of parameters characterizes the fraction that each component
contributes to the lagoon volume, and in fact these are the inversed values of integral
flushing time for each water budget component, which will be discussed in detail
in Section 6.3.3.1.
It is always convenient to present the portrait of a lagoon water budget (regardless
of the water budget component themselves or what specific parameters are considered)
in the form of a rose diagram ( Figure 6.14) for their absolute or relative magnitudes.
This provides a means of comparing the hydrological features of different lagoons.

TABLE 6.6
Typical Values of Morphometric Parameters for Selected Lagoons

P open
[m 2 /km 2 ] Lagoon p r p or P shall p deep

Vistula Lagoon (Russia/Poland) 4.5 ⋅10 −3 10 0.3 ÷ 2.9 4.1 5.97

Curonian Lagoon
(Lithuania/Russia)

8⋅10 −3 2.5-50 0.3 ÷ 16 1.9 2.34

Ria Formosa Lagoon (Portugal) 45.9⋅10 −3 15.25 0.25 ÷ 3.7 20 36.5

Mar Menor (Spain) 4.8⋅10 −3 2.6 3.3 ÷ 8 1.5 1.8

Grande-Entrée Lagoon (Canada) 20.7 ⋅10 −3 6.4 1.5 ÷ 10 2.7 51

Odra Lagoon (Poland/Germany) 11.9 ⋅10 −3 1.7 1.1 ÷ 1.9 1.84 ÷ 2.9 3.2