The Changjiang Estuary: A highly turbid estuary in transition

Estuaries are the core area of land-sea interactions and have significant ecological and economic value. In estuaries, hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics are the crucial processes governing geomorphology, navigability, and primary production. Since the turn of the 20th century, increased human activities (e.g., damming, dredging, and...

Feedback Effects of Sediment Suspensions on Transport Mechanisms in an Estuarine Turbidity Maximum

The mechanisms controlling the formation of an estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM) in estuaries have been extensively investigated, but one aspect that has received much less scientific attention is the role of high suspended sediment concentrations in combination with tidal asymmetry in ETM formation. Particularly in highly turbid estuaries,...

Undular bottom topography as a salt intrusion mitigation measure: A study on the potential of trapped internal waves to enhance vertical mixing

Due to climate change and human interventions, saltwater intrusion is becoming a topic of increasing concern worldwide. Salt water intrudes into the Rotterdam Waterway (RWW) by an exchange flow, where the denser sea water propagates landwards at the bottom. The main competing mechanism for this stratified exchange flow is...

Trench Siltation near the ETM of a Well-mixed Estuary

To exploit its socio-economic functions, engineering measures are regularly applied in estuaries. Estuaries are, however, known to be very complex systems. Stemming from this complexity is the generation of a so-called estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM), which poses great siltation problems to the engineering measures. An engineering measure,...

On the effect of tidal variations of turbulent mixing on flow and salt transport in estuaries

The intrusion of sea water into estuaries creates a complex flow that results from the density difference between fresh river run-off and salty sea water. In combination with other processes, such as tides, these complex flows are of interest because they affect the transport of e.g. salt, sediments and nutrients in water, which determine the...

Impact of estuarine convergence on residual circulation in tidally energetic estuaries and inlets

Estuarine convergence (landward reduction of width and/or depth) is known to have the potential to significantly enhance estuarine circulation, a result theoretically derived under the assumption of constant eddy viscosity. Recent studies of longitudinally uniform energetic tidal channels indicate that tidal straining, a process driven by...