The purpose of the present research is to study tidal flows in Merimus estuary. Having direct access to the Persian Gulf from north and south, this estuary has a very special potential. In this paper, field data of water level, suspended sediment concentration, velocity and direction of flow, and the physical characteristics of temperature, salinity and density of the Merimus estuary in two complete tidal cycles (spring TIDE and NEAP TIDE) have been studied in two stations. At the first station, water level changes in spring TIDE and NEAP TIDE were equal to 5.9 and 5.7 m, respectively. At the second station, these changes were equal to 4.3 and 4.4 meters for spring TIDE and NEAP TIDE, respectively. At the first station, maximum flow rate in spring TIDE and NEAP TIDE was equal to 0.42 and 0.26 meters per second, respectively. At the second station, this rate was equal to 0.64 and 0.64 meters per second for spring TIDE and NEAP TIDE, respectively. There were many changes in density and salinity level in channel and maximum measured density and salinity were equal to 1034.34 kg/m3 and 49.75 PSU, respectively. Average sediment transport at different depths in spring TIDE and NEAP TIDE were equal to 67 and 153 mg/l, respectively.

The use of renewable energy instead of oil and gas reservoirs in the Persian Gulf can be a good platform for renewable energy farms. This study investigates the energy generated by the tidal flow velocity in the Qeshm channel, using a threedimensional hydrodynamic model, MIKE3, Flow Model FM. By installing a hypothetical tidal turbine from Voith Company, with a diameter of 1 m at seven different stations of the model (respectively from east to west of the channel), the tidal energy from the horizontal flow of the area is calculated. In the mentioned simulation, wind stress and thermohaline flow are ignored so that the dominant current is the current caused by the change of water level due to the TIDE. The flow velocity pattern in spring and NEAP TIDEs at Higher High Water (HHW) was then analyzed at the seven stations. The energies of the simulated currents showed that the east side of the channel had more energy potential on the days of spring TIDEs, so that at IP1 station, in the first spring TIDE, 175 watts of electricity is generated, which in the second spring TIDEs decreases by 28. 5%. On the other hand, the west side of the channel had the potential to generate electricity in NEAP TIDEs. Station IP6 had the potential to generate electricity in both the spring and NEAP TIDEs, which had more NEAP TIDEs potential than the spring TIDEs. The difference in power generated in the first and second NEAP TIDEs at IP6 was only 0. 7%, which is less than 30. 2 W compared to the first and second spring TIDEs. Therefore, it can be said that according to the shape of the region, the second bend of Qeshm channel was a more suitable place for energy extraction with the assumed tidal turbine in the region.

Numerical modeling is the most common approach for predicting harbor channel siltation. It requires a comprehensive calibration process because there are several calibration parameters. The most crucial criterion for model calibration is suspended sediment concentration (SSC). The agreement between the measured and simulated SSC time series is usually verified based on generic statistical parameters such as RMSE and R2. This method does not address the important phenomena related to channel siltation; for instance, the siltation rate during NEAP and spring tidal cycles cannot be distinguished in such manner. A process-based calibration procedure has been proposed in this paper which considers some criteria facilitating the calibration processes. Based on analyzing the measured turbidity and current speed data, some criteria were established which convey underlying phenomena affecting sediment transport. They are: (1) the difference between maximum SSC (or turbidity) at NEAP and spring and (2) at ebb and flood TIDE, (3) the minimum turbidity at slack water during spring TIDE, and (4) the current speed-SSC (or turbidity) regression curve. The proposed procedure has been used to calibrate channel siltation in a real case study: Shahid Rajaee port access channel located in the Khoran strait, Iran. As the underlying phenomena affecting sediment transport was considered, the number of simulation runs for calibration processes were considerably decreased.