Assessment of the effects of the Zuider Sea closure on the hydrodynamics of the Wadden Sea inlets

Conference paper (2012)
Department
Hydraulic Engineering (CEG) (TU Delft)
Copyright: Creative Commons
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

01-07-2012

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Source:

ICCE 2012: Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Coastal Engineering, Santander, Spain, 1-6 July 2012

Faculty

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Department

Hydraulic Engineering

Abstract

Large hydrodynamic and morphodynamic changes have taken place in the western Dutch Wadden Sea due to the closure of the Zuider Sea in the early 1930s. Hydrodynamic simulations for three situations, viz. just before the closure, just after the closure and at present, have been carried out in order to investigate the hydrodynamic changes since the closure and to improve our understanding of the observed morphodynamic changes. The model results show a large increase in tidal range after the closure of the Zuider Sea. This increase continued to grow after the closure due to bathymetric change and sea level rise. The morphodynamic analysis focuses on the changed behavior of the ebb-tidal deltas of the Texel Inlet and the Vlie Inlet. Both ebb-tidal deltas have undergone a re-orientation in up drift direction. Two possible explanations based on the literature for this change are discussed with the help of the hydrodynamic simulations.

Files

291152.pdf
(pdf | 1.7 Mb)