Mr Scott Langtry¹, Dr Ryan Alexander¹, Dr David Wright¹

¹RPS, West Perth, Australia

Severe Tropical Cyclone Seroja crossed the coast of Western Australia on 11 April 2021 as a Category 3 cyclone, with the eye of the cyclone passing immediately south of Shark Bay, setting up a storm surge and extreme waves within the arms of the bay. The rise in sea level, which coincided with a flooding tide, and extreme waves set up in Useless Inlet, breached the rock and earth wall enclosing the initial intake pond of a solar evaporation pond that had been in safe operation since the late 1990s. This presentation describes modelling of the storm surge and subsequent tidal flushing and dilution of water contained by the pond (salinity ~60 ppt) with the water within Useless Inlet (salinity ~41 ppt) to assess the environmental consequences for marine habitats within the inlet that forms part of the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. High resolution, three-dimensional modelling delivered calculations for the temporal and spatial distributions of elevated salinity that were cross-referenced with detailed habitat maps to define areas of potential influence or impact.

Biography:

Scott Langtry has extensive experience as a research and consulting environmental scientist specialising in the assessment of anthropogenic impacts on marine, coastal and estuarine systems. Following many years as a field-based marine ecologist investigating impacts of human activities and pollutant discharges on population and habitat ecology, Scott has since focused on environmental assessment and planning to minimise impacts of marine discharges from coastal industries, ports and shipping, and the offshore oil and gas industry. Scott has wide experience applying numerical modelling methods to calculate exposure risks and quantify the impacts of accidental and planned discharges into coastal and marine waters.