Intertidal areas play a crucial role in controlling tidal hydrodynamics and morphodynamics in estuaries and tidal inlets. As a consequence, widespread land reclamation of the intertidal zone has led to alterations in tidal dynamics and the associated morphodynamics of estuaries worldwide. Comparatively little research has focussed on the impact of width changes on tidal hydrodynamics, and results that do exist are highly ambiguous (Talke and Jay, 2020). Tie channels in between parallel inlets complicate the tidal motion, as multichannel systems exhibit a hydrodynamic response that differs significantly from the response observed in single channel systems. In this study, we combine idealized process-based modelling and historical data analysis to investigate the effects of intertidal land reclamation on the tidal dynamics of single- and multichannel systems. Specifically, we focus on the Scheldt and Pasur-Shibsa estuaries, which represent a single- and multichannel system, respectively.@en