Tracking coastal sediments can provide useful information about coastal dynamics, thereby helping coastal management. However, the highly dynamic conditions of the coasts makes analyzing the trajectories of a huge number of particles challenging. To solve this limitation, the framework of coastal sediment connectivity is designed. In this framework, recent advances in graph theory are used to quantify coastal systems as complex networks. In this context, sediment sinks/sources and pathways represent the graphical nodes and links, respectively. In this work, we take the first step to evaluate the ability of this newly-developed framework in quantifying the basic processes on a sandy beach. Firstly, we used Delft3D to obtain the velocity field and bed-level changes. Then, the Eulerian results were fed into SedTRAILS to simulate the sediment pathways. We show that the current version of the model can correctly calculate the basic metrics of the sediment-connectivity network (e.g., network link strength which is a proxy for sediment fluxes). More specifically, we show that this framework is capable of exploring the initiation of the rip channel formation.

Coastal sediment budgets are a foundational source of information for coastal management decision-making. To quantify these budgets, coastal systems are often divided into “cells” based on jurisdictional boundaries or topography. However, such divisions do not account for the pathways that water and sediment particles actually take. In this study we quantify cell boundaries that emerge from numerical simulations of sand and water pathways in a barrier island-lagoon system in the Netherlands (the Western Wadden Sea). By quantifying Lagrangian particle pathways as a network, we can derive internally well-connected but externally disconnected modules. Here we show that large (O(10 km)) coherent modules develop from flow patterns at tidal timescales (12.5 h), and are persistent through varying tide and weather conditions. Conversely, modules derived from 100 µm sand pathways are less coherent and highly spatially fragmented. The difference in patterns likely relates to the longer timescales associated with sediment transport. These emergent patterns could be used to better inform coastal and estuarine management by providing physics-based sediment cell boundaries.

In this paper, we investigate the effects of the bathymetry of the floodplain distributaries using a 2-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the Wax Lake Outlet (WLO), delta and floodplain (Louisiana, USA), using Delft3D. Modelling the tidal-fluvial interaction of this region is challenging because of its complex network of low-lying floodplain distributaries and vegetation coverage. This investigation addresses this interaction by generating the evolution of the flood-map that is used in the calibration and validation phase of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. Accordingly, the model is set up for one week of calm conditions from October 14th to 20th in 2016. Boundary conditions applied at the edges of the 36 × 23 km ² domain include the offshore water level with tidal oscillations, the upstream volumetric river discharge rate and wind time-series (applied spatially uniformly). The topo-bathymetry of the domain is a product of the Pre-Delta-X mission; however, it has considerable uncertainties to represent the small distributaries, especially in the forested section of the region. This paper tackles this uncertainty by parametrically enhancing and calibrating the primary Digital Terrain Model (DTM). The performance of the model is assessed using the water-level time series measured by the stations spread throughout the floodplain, delta and main river. The results show that the morphology of the distributaries play a major role in the hydrodynamic of Wax Lake region under calm conditions. The hydrodynamic of the WLO and floodplain is considerably affected by the discharge capacity of the distributaries (changed by editing their width and depth) due to change of the balance between roughness and topographic convergence. In WLO, higher discharge capacity leads to higher overall roughness friction force, thereby dampening the amplitude of the water-level signal and vice versa. On the other hand, increasing the bottom roughness of the WLO increases the water level in the floodplain, with more considerable effect in the low tides. The calibrated model well matches the measurements along the Wax Lake Outlet. However, the main discrepancies are in the stations further away from the WLO. The tests conducted in this research suggest that the excessive roughness due to uneven bed along the distributaries and vegetation are, respectively, the potentially-responsible parameters for the remaining discrepancies in low- and high-tide periods.