How to Measure the Coastal Currents of Weston-super-Mare

1. Where is Weston-super-Mare?

Weston - super - Mare is a popular seaside town located in North Somerset, England, on the Bristol Channel. Its strategic location has established a historical and abiding connection with the sea, which has been at the heart of its development, economy, and lifestyle of its inhabitants.

Weston - super - Mare is steeped in history. It has grown from being a small fishing village to becoming a fashionable sea resort. The town's architecture is a combination of the traditional and modern. There are Victorian-era style buildings with common characteristics in the town proper. They typically have intricately designed facades, massive bay windows, and elaborate ironwork, having a quintessentially English coastal atmosphere. The seashore has a long pier, amusement parks, and new hotels, which attract a lot of tourists to the town every year. Along the main roads, there are modern shops, cafes, and restaurants, catering to the residents and tourists alike.

Weston - super - Mare residents have a long - standing love for the sea. Fishing is an old profession passed from generation to generation. Although the fishing community has changed through history, several local fishermen still depart from the harbor. They come back with catches such as mackerel, herring, and also some shellfish. The harbor is not just a hub for fishing activity but is also visited by tourists and locals to avail boat trips. People can be pampered with the fresh sea breeze, the birds' flight above them, and the beautiful sea scenery of the Bristol Channel.

The sea and beaches of Weston - super - Mare are of great significance to the area's ecosystem. The sea in the Bristol Channel here provides habitat for a range of sea creatures. Seals can often be found on the sandbanks, and gulls, terns, and cormorants are common sights. There is also a topography to the seabed consisting of sandy areas, scattered rock outcrops, and subtidal channels. All this serves to enhance biodiversity and contribute importantly to the movement of the water.

2. What's the Status of the Coastal Currents in the Weston - super - Mare Area?

The off - shore coastal currents at Weston - super - Mare are dominated by a number of factors. Tidal forces are perhaps the most significant of these. The Bristol Channel possesses semi - diurnal tides with a fairly large tidal range. The resultant tidal currents can be as high as 3 - 4 knots in certain areas, especially off the mouths of small inlets or headlands. During high tide, water rushes on to the beach, taking with it sediment and nutrients from the open ocean. This benefits local sea life, providing them with food and shelter. When the tide is out, the water recedes and the intertidal regions are revealed, with tiny crabs, sea anemones, and other varieties of seaweed.

Wind is the second crucial element. Prevailing south-westerly winds have the tendency of driving near-surface water off the coast into the coastline, developing coastal currents. Waves generated by such winds similarly react to the meeting of the current, leading to an intensified flow regime. Northerly winds drive water away from the coast. The shape of the coastline, the bays, headlands, and North Somerset coast characteristic features cause the currents to converge and diverge in many different places. Shallow submerged outcrops of rock and sandbars add additional complexity to current patterns. These are barriers or channels, diverting water flow and creating zones of quiet or turbulent water. Also, the movement of freshwater from small local streams can affect the local current patterns. The freshwater, as it is less dense than seawater, forms a surface layer and flows towards the sea, getting mixed with the tidal and wind-driven currents.

3. How to Observe the Coastal Water Flow of Weston - super - Mare?

Surface Drifting Buoy Method

Surface drifting buoys are an inexpensive but effective way of determining the surface - level currents near Weston - super - Mare. The buoys carry GPS or satellite - based tracking. As they are released into the water, they are carried by the surface currents. Researchers can track them over time. From the course that the buoy takes, they can make an estimation of the speed and direction of the surface waters. But this method has limitation only to the top few meters of the water column. It might not be precisely what is occurring in the deeper parts of the water, where the flows can be different due to factors like fluctuations in salinity and temperature.

Moored Ship Method

In the moored ship method, a ship is moored at a location near Weston - super - Mare's shoreline. Then, measuring instruments like electromagnetic current meters are employed. They measure the water flow at different depths. They provide a vertical profile of velocity and direction of the current. But this method is restricted to one location. Moreover, the ship itself might interfere with the natural flow of the water. The design of the hull of the ship and how it is anchored can create turbulence within the water, and this can affect the reliability of the measurements.

Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) Method

ADCPs have revolutionized coastal current measurement off Weston - super - Mare. They can measure the velocity profile of the entire water column from the surface right down to the seabed. ADCPs count the water flow non-intrusively using sound waves. They emit acoustic pulses and measure the Doppler shift of the backscattered signals from suspended water particles, such as sediment, plankton, or small bubbles. They can therefore measure the current velocity at different depths. This provides an overall picture of the present structure, which makes it very well suited to examining the intricate coastal current patterns in the Weston - super - Mare area.

4. What Is Required for High-Quality Measurement of Weston-super-Mare Coastal Currents?

Reliability of Equipment Materials

High-quality measurement of the coastal currents off Weston-super-Mare requires the equipment materials to be reliable. The ADCP profiler casing must be made of a material that is strong enough to endure the tough marine environment of the Bristol Channel. Titanium alloy is a good option. Its strength resists the thrust of strong currents of water, potential collisions by floating debris, and the corrosive nature of seawater. Its low modulus of elasticity confers flexibility and reduces mechanical damage. Its excellent corrosion resistance allows the ADCP meter to be submersed for extended periods for monitoring without sustaining any significant decrease in performance.

Small Size, Light Weight, Low Power Requirement, and Low Cost

Light weight and compact ADCP flow meter are easier to deploy and operate. You can place it on a small research vessel, install it on a buoy, or place it on the seafloor. It also has less impact on natural water flow, leading to greater accuracy. Low power usage is critical for long-term independent surveillance, especially for battery-powered systems. Low-cost ADCP facilitates large - scale deployment. This is necessary to gain an in-depth insight into the complex coastal current dynamics in Weston-super-Mare. The more ADCPs used in different locations, the greater our insight into how the currents vary across the area.

5. Sourcing of Proper Equipment for the Measurement of Current

Depending on Use

• Shipborne ADCP: Most suited to obtain instantaneous current data over a ship route near Weston-super-Mare. Can be used to take oceanographic surveys, to learn about the region's general circulation, and to optimize shipping, if any within the region.
• Bottom-mounted ADCP: Ideal for long - term, fixed - point observation of the seabed currents. This is useful in examining long - term trends in the coastal currents, e.g., the effects of climate change on the marine ecosystem in the region.
• Buoy-mounted ADCP: Best suited to monitor surface - level currents over a wide area as the buoy is buoyant with the water. Helps to know the spatial variation of the surface currents and how the coastal waters interact with the open Bristol Channel.

Dependent on Water Depth

• 600kHz ADCP: Ideal for water depths of approximately 70m, providing high-resolution data in the relatively shallow water along Weston-super-Mare.
• 300kHz ADCP: Better for water depths of approximately 110m, which will be useful for slightly deeper areas of the Bristol Channel near the town.
• 75kHz ADCP: Suitable for deep-water use. Although the waters off Weston-super-Mare are not usually very deep, it can be employed for research into the deeper-layer currents or in areas with deeper channels, with the ability to measure currents at depths of up to 1000m.

There are several well-known ADCP brands in the overseas market, such as Teledyne RDI, Nortek, and Sontek. If you prefer an economical choice, the China Sonar PandaADCP, made of all-titanium alloy, is a proper compromise between price and quality. You can find more details about it on (https://china-sonar.com/).

Here is a table with some well known ADCP instrument brands and models.