Henk Jongbloed

ir. Henk Jongbloed

PhD candidate Environmental Fluid Mechanics

I am studying methods to describe salt intrusion in surface waters using idealized models, combined with field data. Salt intrusion, the movement of saline water from the sea into freshwater estuaries and rivers, is expected to increase in the coming decades, threatening freshwater availability for society, agriculture and industry. Modelling and subsequent understanding of the processes involved in salt intrusion is crucial in order to predict salinization on long timescales or after large-scale system interventions. Mathematically, the dynamics of salt intrusion is described by a set of nonlinear coupled PDE with large parameter spaces. One could solve these directly using complex FEM-type models, however, these are often computationally expensive and moreover hard to interpret systematically.

In my research, I try to simplify the governing equations with the goal of only retaining the dominant processes governing the large-scale and long-timescale behaviour of the system. This way, sensitivity analyses can be performed rapidly to get to know the behaviour of the estuaries w.r.t. a limited set of parameters, giving insight in dominant balances and processes. I am combining this with field and complex model data as to not become too detached from reality.