Tidal flats, where significant land‐ocean interactions take place, are often abstracted as a cross‐shore bed profile with sediment zonation from the lower sand flat to the upper mud flat. However, in addition to cross‐shore tidal currents, the impact of the alongshore components on cross‐shore sediment transport, morphological evolution, and sediment grain‐size change remains unclear. Here we investigated sand‐mud tidal flat morphodynamics in the absence of waves by combining approaches of field observations, numerical modeling, and analytical interpretations, based on the example of the tidal flat on the central Jiangsu coast, China. The results show that the morphodynamic processes are complicated by the interactions of cross‐shore and alongshore tidal currents, cross‐shore flat morphology, and sediment zonation. With amplified phase lags of the alongshore tidal level at the boundaries, alongshore currents become dominant over cross‐shore tidal currents on the lower flat, while the upper flat is always dominated by the cross‐shore currents. Therefore, bed profiles and mud content on the upper flat were independent of the alongshore tidal current magnitude, being convex‐up and consisting of mud. In contrast, the strong alongshore currents can erode mud on the lower flat and promote landward sand transport from the subtidal area to the lower flat, forming a sand flat. The maximum tidal bed shear stress is almost spatially uniform across the muddy area but pronouncedly elevated where the bed sediment coarsens on the lower flat. The contributions of the alongshore tidal currents and sand‐mud sorting processes should be appropriately addressed in similar coastal environments.

Morphodynamic equilibrium is a widely adopted yet elusive concept in the field of geomorphology of coasts, rivers and estuaries. Based on the Exner equation, an expression of mass conservation of sediment, we distinguish three types of equilibrium defined as static and dynamic, of which two different types exist. Other expressions such as statistical and quasi-equilibrium which do not strictly satisfy the Exner conditions are also acknowledged for their practical use. The choice of a temporal scale is imperative to analyse the type of equilibrium. We discuss the difference between morphodynamic equilibrium in the "real world" (nature) and the "virtual world" (model). Modelling studies rely on simplifications of the real world and lead to understanding of process interactions. A variety of factors affect the use of virtual-world predictions in the real world (e.g., variability in environmental drivers and variability in the setting) so that the concept of morphodynamic equilibrium should be mathematically unequivocal in the virtual world and interpreted over the appropriate spatial and temporal scale in the real world. We draw examples from estuarine settings which are subject to various governing factors which broadly include hydrodynamics, sedimentology and landscape setting. Following the traditional "tide-wave-river" ternary diagram, we summarize studies todate that explore the "virtual world", discuss the type of equilibrium reached and how it relates to the real world.