TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL VARIATION OF RESIDUAL CURRENT INDUCED BYDREDGING CONSTRUCTION IN THE FRONT AREA OF INCHEON NEW PORT, SOUTH KOREA

The purpose of this study is to understand the temporal and spatial variation of current induced by depth variation due to artificial dredging construction conduct observation. The study area in front of Incheon New Port (INP) located in the west coast of Korea has drastic topography variation because of its recent construction and development. These depth variations cause the change of the current velocity and direction. Furthermore, these processes cause the environmental change of topography and sediment dynamics. The across-sectional observations was conducted 4 times for 13 hours in order to acquire the hydrodynamics data with sampling the sea water. The across-sectional observation line is 2 km long and the depth of north side (nearby INP) is about 20 m, south side (nearby the Sihwa Dike) is about 7 m. In this area, uncommon current is observed. On the south side (shallow depth) of the line, ebb current is observed during high tide. On the other hand, on the north side (deep depth) of the line, flood tide is observed during low tide. The residual current is shown that the ebb dominance flow is shown at surface layer and flood dominance flow is shown at bottom layer near INP .The overall current flow of north - south direction is shown into the south. These results and physical character with the operation of Sihwa Tidal Power Plant (STPP) seem to affect the sediment processes in the vicinity of the IN