The Longitudinal Profile of a Prograding River and Its Response to Sea Level Rise

The Longitudinal Profile of a Prograding River and Its Response to Sea Level Rise

Gao, Weilun (Beijing Normal University; Ministry of Education, Shandong)
Li, Dongxue (Beijing Normal University; Ministry of Education, Shandong)
Wang, Zhengbing (TU Delft Coastal Engineering; Beijing Normal University; Deltares)
Nardin, William (University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science)
Shao, Dongdong (Beijing Normal University; Ministry of Education, Shandong)
Sun, Tao (Beijing Normal University; Ministry of Education, Shandong)
University, Beijing (Beijing Normal University)
Cui, Baoshan (Beijing Normal University; Ministry of Education, Shandong)

2020

River longitudinal profile, a key morphological characteristic of the river channel, is subject to river mouth progradation. Given the increasing influence of human activities and climate change on this critical downstream control, understanding its effects on the evolution of the longitudinal profile is imperative. A general theoretical framework is proposed to quantify the relevant effects, which is tested by numerical experiment and compared with field, numerical and laboratory data from the literature. The results suggest the existence of a critical ratio of accommodation space to sediment supply of approximately 0.5, above which the typical concave upward profile tends to form. Further analyses show that sea level rise tends to increase the concavity of the longitudinal profile of a river with a relatively low equilibrium bed slope and progradation rate.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:882b3d68-ab41-4a14-9043-639c11d3e546

https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL090450

2021-04-21

0094-8276

Geophysical Research Letters, 47 (21), 1-9

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2020 Weilun Gao, Dongxue Li, Zhengbing Wang, William Nardin, Dongdong Shao, Tao Sun, Beijing University, Baoshan Cui