Submit an abstract to our session at the Ocean Science Meeting 2026 in Glasgow, UK
About two-thirds of global freshwater comes from surface waters like tidal estuaries, which are increasingly affected by saltwater intrusion due to factors such as droughts, sea-level rise, river floods, tides, storm surges, and human interventions like channel modifications and water management. However, the combined impact of these factors—especially during prolonged drought—remains poorly understood. This knowledge gap has gained public attention through reports of salt-contaminated drinking water in tidal rivers. The SCOR Working Group 172 “SALTWATER” aims to address this issue by advancing interdisciplinary research and developing a global synthesis. We welcome contributions on estuarine salt intrusion using theoretical, observational, modeling, or machine learning methods.
We invite contributions highlighting new findings on estuarine salt intrusion processes, using theoretical, observational, numerical, statistical or Machine Learning approaches.
Primary Chair
Hans Burchard – Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research
Co-chairs
Debora Bellafiore – Institute of Marine Sciences (CNR-ISMAR)
Yuley M Cardona – National University of Colombia, Medellin
Ming Li – University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Laboratory
PAPERS
Contrasting extremes dynamics in the Po River Delta and the Emilia-Romagna coast, a study on saltwater intrusion and freshwater plume dynamics.
Alejandro Palladio-Hernandez, United States
Impact of Intertidal Habitats on Salt Dynamics in Tidally Dominated, Periodically Weakly Stratified Estuaries
Renjie Zhu1, Wei Zhang1, Xiaoyan Wei2 and Henk M. Schuttelaars3, (1) Hohai University, College of Harbour, Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Nanjing, China, (2) National Oceanography Centre, Liverpool, England, UNITED KINGDOM, (3) Delft University of Technology, Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics, Delft, Netherlands
The overturning circulation of salt vs. water
Prof. Kristofer Döös, Stockholm University, Department of Meteorology, Stockholm, Sweden, Inga Monika Koszalka, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, Lars Axell, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrköping, Sweden and Lars Axell