MARETEC is a research Centre on Marine Environment and Technology where modelling of marine and land systems is a major research area. Our main activities are centered on numerical modelling applied to water environmental problems, monitoring and data management.
The MARETEC research group a long experience, with more than 20 years, in the development and application of numerical models to coastal and ocean areas and 10 years of experience in land and riparian areas. MARETEC is also strongly involved with different monitoring programs for coastal areas concerning water quality and primary production.
The MOHID system - a public domain code with users worldwide - is an integrated modeling system developed at this Centre. It includes two main models MOHID WATER and MOHID LAND.
A major goal of MARETEC is to develop exploitable products, and the group has specialized in delivering scientifically up-to-date engineering solutions for the wide variety of challenges presented by the research, exploration and management of coastal areas.
The output from the group is built on a solid foundation of expertise and multi-disciplinary domain knowledge, where modelling tools are the center feature of R&D programs.
The MARETEC research group has a solid experience of more than 20 years in the development and application of numerical models to marine environments and, more recently, also in watershed and land hydrology modelling.
MARETEC Marine & Environmental Technology Center is a research group located at Instituto Superior Técnico, one of the most prestigious engineering universities in Portugal.
MARETEC's mission is the R&D activities in the fields of marine environment and marine technologies. The group participates in several interdisciplinary projects involving hydrodynamics, sediment transport, water-quality, ecology, and biogeochemical processes. The group has a wide experience in the development and application of modelling tools dealing with water-related problems. These last 10 year MARETEC has had projects related with hydrology, erosion, mineralization of organic matter, irrigation, best management practices, watershed management and reservoir management.
Over the last two decades the group has been actively involved in National and International research projects devoted to modelling, monitoring and management of marine and watershed areas.
Since its beginning MARETEC has been developing the MOHID modelling platform, a system that is used worldwide to model marine physical, water-quality and biogeochemical processes.
Domains of application
Studying physical and ecological processes in a small coastal lagoon
Study site: Óbidos Lagoon, Portugal
Óbidos Lagoon is a small and shallow coastal lagoon with two regions with distinct morphological and sedimentary characteristics: the lower and the upper lagoon. The main water quality problems at Óbidos Lagoon result from eutrophication processes in the upper lagoon, an area particularly vulnerable due to nutrients accumulation, organic matter bottom deposition and high oxygen consumption.
MARETEC with the support of AdO was involved in a monitoring program and the MOHID model was applied to coastal lagoon for studding the physical processes such the role of the waves, wind and freshwater discharges in the lagoon hydrodynamic.
Main results show that waves have an important role in lagoons hydrodynamic increasing the water level in the lagoon during high energy waves episodes. These have implications in terms of water renewal, since increase the water residence time in the lagoon. Water quality in the upper part is controlled by nutrient loads and the lower part by residence time.
Velocity fields for tidal plus wave forcing
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Optimization of a mariculture production unit
Study site: San Pedro del Pinatar, Spain
The aim of this study was the evaluation of the maximum carrying capacity in a mariculture unit located off San Pedro del Pinatar in the Mediterranean Sea, in terms of production and impacts on the water quality in the surrounding area. The results from this work were used as a support to the decision on the management of the aquaculture in the region.
In study MARETEC acted as a partner providing expertise in the field of modelling by applying the MOHID model to the area. During this work new processes were added to the models code to better assess the impact of the different types of feed on the water-quality.
Phosphate distribution in the water column
Evaluating light and nutrient limitation in the Tagus estuary
Study site: Tagus Estuary, Portugal
During the last decades the Tagus estuary has been the focus of several experimental and numerical studies. Field observations suggest that light plays the major role in the control of phytoplanktonic production in the system, with nutrients limitation taking place only in some confined areas. Light limitation has also been inferred by some modeling studies.
In this work the MOHID model has been implemented to the Tagus estuary to determine light and nutrients influence on phytoplankton production. This application represents the first numerical study of the Tagus estuary with a hydrodynamic model coupled to a complex biogeochemistry model.
Preliminary model results suggest that the system is mostly controlled by light availability. Nevertheless, nutrients may also control production to some extent but only in lower estuarine areas and in summer. This numerical study seems to agree with common knowledge on the system, giving support to the idea that the Tagus estuary is mostly controlled by light.
C:Chla for diatoms in the Tagus estuary in early summer (julian day 180).
Operational forecast of the Portuguese waters
Study site: Portuguese coast and Azores Islands
A three-level nested 3D hydrodynamic model for the West Iberia coast was applied and refined near the Estremadura promontory using MOHID. Another model with the same forcing and nesting techniques was implemented for the first time in the Azores region. The results were compared with in situ data. Realistic forcing was used and provided by the large-scale North-Atlantic Mercator Ocean solution and by the atmospheric MM5 model from meteo-IST for the West Iberian coast, and by the MM5 meteorological outputs provided by the operational forecasting system of the University of the Azores
In this project MARETEC worked with HIDROMOD to implement a system that is able to produce forecasts for the continental Portuguese domain, hosted on an Opendap server that provides weekly runs that can be inspected at http://data.mohid.com/data.xml.
Surface salinity and velocity (1 month average) in the Azores
Influence of nutrient loads on Portuguese estuaries - A modelling study
Study site: Minho, Lima, Douro, Mondego, Tagus, Sado and Guadiana estuaries and Ria de Aveiro and Ria Formosa, Portugal
One of the key concerns regarding the management of coastal waters is the artificial and oftentimes problematic acceleration of eutrophication in coastal systems. To deal with this potential problem, the Portuguese Water Institute (INAG) aimed at assessing the effects of implementing the Waste Water Treatment Plan Directive 91/271/EEC and the Nitrates Directive 91/676/EEC in seven Portuguese estuaries and two coastal lagoons.
MARETECs role in this study was to use the MOHID model to test three nitrogen load scenarios for each site to know, among other things, how important is the interaction between hydrodynamic and ecological processes in trophic problems in estuaries.
The study shows that (i) in systems with short residence time the reduction in nutrient load only produces a decrease in nutrient transit, not affecting the global ecological status; (ii) in systems with long residence time, the effects range from significant, when primary production is mostly nutrient-limited, to non-significant, when primary production is light-limited.
Phytoplankton and ammonia annual fluxes at the Ria de Aveiro
Renewal time scales in the Tagus Estuary
This work offers a methodology to understand the transport patterns in the Tagus Estuary, based on the computation of two renewal time scales: residence time and integrated water fraction. The parameters were computed using a Lagrangian transport model coupled to the hydrodynamic model.
This work was developed by MARETEC using the MOHID hydrodynamic and ecological models during the project FESTA II, funded by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT).
Results show that Tagus Estuary has two different types of regions: the central part of the estuary, with low renewal efficiency, and three regions with higher renewal efficiency. Renewal mechanisms are, however, different for each region. Comparison of renewal time scales with results from a water-quality model revealed that residence time is not a limiting parameter for primary production in the Tagus Estuary.
Residual water flux of the Tagus Estuary mouth
Over the last two decades MARETEC has been involved as a modelling team in several national and international R&D projects funded by the EU and the Portuguese Science Fundation (FCT)
Ramiro Neves, PhD
Director, Associate Professor, Senior Researcher
Rodrigo Fernandes
Junior Researcher
Claudia Neto
David Brito
Eduardo Jauch
Carina Almeida
Sara Freitas
Financial accountant
Marcos Mateus, PhD
Auxiliary Researcher
Pedro Chambel
Guillaume Riflet, PhD
Researcher
Hilda de Pablo
Andreia Amaral
Francisco Campuzano
Isabella Kenov
Rosa Trancoso
Carla Garcia, PhD
João Nogueira
Susana Nunes
Sofia Saraiva
The following list presents some selected works authored by researchers working at MARETEC at the time of publication.
MARETEC : Marine & Environment Technology Center
Instituto Superior Técnico
Secção de Ambiente e Energia - Dep. de Mecânica
Av. Rovisco Pais nº1, 1049-001 Lisboa
PORTUGAL
Phone: +351 21 8419428 Fax: +351 21 8419423
E-mail: webmaster_mohid.com
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