Deltaic channel networks are important conduits for water and material supplies to the fluvial and coastal communities. However, increasing human interventions in river deltas have altered the topology and geometry of channel networks as well as their long-term evolution. While the morphological evolution of a single channel has received extensive studies, the system-wide morphological responses of channel networks to local disturbances remain largely unclear. Here we investigate the morphological responses of a bifurcating channel network subject to local disturbance of channel deepening due to dredging and sand mining through idealized simulations, and further compare the results with the reference scenarios of a single channel and theoretical analysis of the phase plane. The results show that the infilling of the local deepening is associated with the erosion of the entire branch, which also causes system-wide effects on the siltation of the other branch. The morphological responses of the bifurcating channel network consist of a relatively short stage for the infilling of the local deepening followed by a relatively long stage for recovering the equilibrium configuration of the river bifurcation. The system-wide effects of the local disturbance arise from the altered water surface slope and water partitioning downstream of the bifurcation due to the local deepening. Also, the prolonged recovery of the equilibrium configuration is consistent with theoretical analysis, which reveals a slow evolution of the bifurcation when approaching the equilibrium. Our results can help understand the long-term morphological responses of large-scale complex channel networks and inform water managements under increasing human interventions.

Water and mass transport in distributary channel networks play an important role in nourishing fluvial and coastal wetlands, and are largely determined by the morphological configurations of channel bifurcations. While the morphological equilibrium of a single channel bifurcation has been extensively studied, the equilibrium configurations of channel networks with connecting channels linking the bifurcating branches, that is, the “bifurcation-connecting channel” units that are commonly found in rivers, deltas and estuaries, remain elusive. In this simple yet representative channel network of the “bifurcation-connecting channel” unit, we observed through numerical simulations an oscillatory water partitioning under moderate Shields stress and channel aspect ratio, in addition to the steady-state solutions reported in previous studies. The oscillatory water partitioning indicates a newly discovered periodic solution, which is an emergent behavior under constant boundary conditions. We found that the periodic solution is primarily due to the dynamic interactions between bifurcation instability and water surface slope advantage in the two branches modulated by the reversable discharges through the connecting channel, under moderate Shields stress and channel aspect ratio. In such cases, the developed slope advantage in the subordinate branch can suppress the deepening of the dominant branch and eventually lead to the shifting of the dominant branch. In contrast, the channel network attains a steady-state solution when the slope advantage or the bifurcation instability is dominant with relatively low and high Shields stress (or channel aspect ratio). Our results improve the understanding on the evolution and restoration of channel networks under increasing human interventions in global deltas.