Port Augusta Hydrodynamic Model and Mercury Study (Sicily, Italy)

Mercury concentration in the sediments in the Port of Augusta has been found to be very high. The Italian Government has initiated a range of studies to investigate the extents of contamination and how to remediate the contamination found. The purpose of this study is the evaluation of water circulation around Augusta harbor and the levels of water exchanges between water inside and outside of Augusta harbor. The Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC) (Hamrick 1992, 1996) was the hydrodynamic modeling code used. The model development and analysis tool, EFDC_Explorer (Craig, 2008) was the primary tool used to build and display the model results.