Future Response of the Wadden Sea Tidal Basins to Relative Sea-Level rise—An Aggregated Modelling Approach

Climate change, and especially the associated acceleration of sea-level rise, forms a serious threat to the Wadden Sea. The Wadden Sea contains the world’s largest coherent intertidal flat area and it is known that these flats can drown when the rate of sea-level rise exceeds a critical limit. As a result, the intertidal flats would then be...

The contribution of sand and mud to infilling of tidal basins in response to a closure dam

Human interventions and climate change can heavily influence the large-scale morphological development of tidal basins. This has implications on sediment management strategies, as well as ecological and recreational purposes. Examples of heavily impacted tidal basins are those in the Western Dutch Wadden Sea. The closure of a large sub-basin...

Sediment budget and morphological development of the Dutch Wadden Sea: Impact of accelerated sea-level rise and subsidence until 2100

The Wadden Sea is a unique coastal wetland containing an uninterrupted stretch of tidal flats that span a distance of nearly 500 km along the North Sea coast from the Netherlands to Denmark. The development of this system is under pressure of climate change and especially the associated acceleration in sea-level rise (SLR). Sustainable...

Understanding sediment bypassing processes through analysis of high-frequency observations of Ameland Inlet, the Netherlands

Ameland inlet is centrally located in the chain of West Frisian Islands (the Netherlands). A globally unique dataset of detailed bathymetric charts starting in the early 19th century, and high-resolution digital data since 1986 allows for detailed investigations of the ebb-tidal delta morphodynamics and sediment bypassing over a wide range of...

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

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...

Morphodynamic development and sediment budget of the Dutch Wadden Sea over the last century

The availability of nearly 100 years of bathymetric measurements allows the analysis of the morphodynamic evolution of the Dutch Wadden Sea under rising sea level and increasing human constraint. The historically observed roll-over mechanisms of landward barrier and coastline retreat cannot be sustained naturally due to numerous erosion control...