River Flow Induced Nonlinear Modulation of M₄ Overtide in Large Estuaries

River discharge is known to enhance tidal damping and tidal wave deformation in estuaries. While the damping effect on astronomical tides has been well documented, river impact on tidal wave deformation and associated overtide generation (shallow water harmonics of one or more astronomical constituents, such as M₄) remains...

Impact of Reduced Fluvial Sediment Supply on Saltwater Intrusion in the Yangtze Estuary

A decline of the fluvial sediment supply leads to coastal erosion and land loss. However, the fluvial sediment load may influence not only coastal morphodynamics but also estuarine hydrodynamics and associated saltwater intrusion. Previous studies revealed that suspended sediments influence estuarine hydrodynamics through various flow...

Decadal morphological evolution of the mouth zone of the Yangtze Estuary in response to human interventions

The morphology of the Yangtze Estuary has changed substantially at decadal time scales in response to natural processes, local human interference and reduced sediment supply. Due to its high sediment load, the morphodynamic response time of the estuary is short, providing a valuable semi-natural system to evaluate large-scale estuarine...

An analysis on half century morphological changes in the Changjiang Estuary: Spatial variability under natural processes and human intervention

Examination of large scale, alluvial estuarine morphology and associated time evolution is of particular importance regarding management of channel navigability, ecosystem, etc. In this work, we analyze morphological evolution and changes of the channel-shoal system in the Changjiang Estuary, a river- and tide-controlled coastal plain estuary,...

A study of in-situ sediment flocculation in the turbidity maxima of the Yangtze Estuary

In order to improve our understandings of temporal and vertical variations of sediment flocculation dynamics within the turbidity maxima (TM) of the highly turbid Yangtze Estuary (YE), we deployed LISST-100C, a laser instrument for in-situ monitor of the sizes and concentrations of flocculated particles in a wet season. Field data in terms of...

Modeling estuarine morphodynamics under combined river and tidal forcing

Estuarine morphodynamics are of broad importance to estuaries’ functions related to navigation, human settlement and ecosystems. Inspired by the Yangtze River estuary (YRE), this study aims to explore the impact of river discharge, tides and their interaction on long-term estuarine morphodynamics. Use is made of 1D and 2D process-based models....