Morphodynamics of the Lister Tief tidal basin

Morphodynamics of the Lister Tief tidal basin

Nortier, R.J.

Stive, M.J.F. (mentor)
Wang, Z.B. (mentor)
Zitman, T.J. (mentor)
Noppen, J.O. (mentor)
Oost, A.P. (mentor)

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

2004-01-01

The Wadden Sea is characterized by barrier islands separated by tidal inlets consisting of a system of inter-tidal flats and channels. It is an ecologically valuable area. Accelerated sea-level rise due to climate change combined with human interference which may cause land subsidence can have significant impact on the Wadden Sea system. A major question of concern is how vulnerable the Wadden Sea system is to the relative sea-level rise. The present study focuses at the apparent deviant behaviour of the Lister Tief tidal basin compared to Dutch tidal basins in the Wadden Sea. All the tidal basins in the Dutch Wadden Sea appear to import sediment such that the deposition in the basins tend to cope with the low sea-level rise rate of about 20 cm/century at present. The Lister Tief, a tidal basin located between Germany and Denmark, appears to be eroding sediment despite the sea-level rise. Long-term modelling, needed for large scale systems like the Wadden Sea, can be done by the model ASMITA. It is a semi-empirical model which appears to be a powerful tool for simulating the long-term morphological development under influence of sea-level rise. In this study the Lister Tief basin is compared with the tidal basins in the Dutch Wadden Sea concerning aspects including the hypsometry and tidal asymmetry. Moreover, results of application of the ASMITA model are compared with the development of parameters representing hypsometry and tidal asymmetry under relative sea-level rise. The hypothesis was that the hypsometry of the Lister Tief could be the reason for the deviant behaviour of the Lister Tief tidal basin. From the analysis carried out in this study it appears that the Lister Tief tidal basin is not behaving differently than Dutch tidal basins under relative sea-level rise. The basin hypsometry does have a significant influence on the tidal asymmetry, but results from the analysis do not explain the loss of sediment in the Lister Tief tidal basin. From an analysis and the application of the ASMITA model it becomes clear that the model agrees with the development of parameters representing the basin hypsometry.

morphodynamics
tidal basin
Lister Tief
asmita
sediment

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:89da7250-9acb-429d-bb71-d7dbc60e7755

TU Delft, Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Hydraulic Engineering

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2004 R.J. Nortier