| Modeling suspended particulate matter (SPM) dynamics is essential to calculate sediment transport budgets and to provide relevant knowledge for the understanding of biogeochemical cycles in coastal waters. Natural flocs are characterized by their size, shape, structure and density that determine their settling velocity and therefore their vertical as well as horizontal transport. During transport, several processes, in particular aggregation and fragmentation, alter these particle properties. In the present study, we compare two different 0D modeling approaches for flocculation processes, a size class-based (SCB) model and a distribution-based (DB) model that follows the first moment of the particle distribution function. The study leads to an improved... |
