A three-dimensional numerical simulation of the velocity and concentration fields in the Palermo bay

Severe environmental stresses occur in coastal water bodies when they receive non-treated sewage and industrial discharges from wide urban areas, as the Palermo bay does. Such situations heavily affect both the hygienic conditions of the water body and the economic activities related to the sea. Numerical simulations of the flow, continuity and transport equations can be carried out to draw the velocity and pollutants concentration fields in order to correctly assess the environmental quality of the water body. An exhaustive portrait of such fields therefore requires the specification of many factors, i.e. wind velocity and direction, air temperature, humidity and pressure, inflow rates due to rivers and to urban outlets, sea surface elevation at the boundaries, far flow patterns. In the present paper the forcing terms taken into account are the wind-induced shear-stresses and the Coriolis effect only. Hence the resulting velocity and concentration fields cannot fully describe the very realistic situation that may occur in the bay; these study cases are meant to sketch the potential of the model out.