Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Coastal Ocean Processes
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1440754

Response of suspended sediment dynamics to human activities in the transitional zone between Changjiang Estuary and Hangzhou Bay

Provisionally accepted
Dongfeng Xie Dongfeng Xie 1*Yuwen Chen Yuwen Chen 2Shenyang Zhang Shenyang Zhang 1Wen Wei Wen Wei 3Jiali Gu Jiali Gu 1Wenyi Duan Wenyi Duan 1
  • 1 Zhejiang Institute of Hydraulics & Estuary, Hangzhou, China
  • 2 Jiangsu Climate Center, Nanjing, China
  • 3 Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Changjiang Estuary and Hangzhou Bay system has experienced river damming and estuarine engineering in the last decades. However, few studies focused on the shifts in its sediment dynamics due to such human activities. In this study multi-decadal development of sediment dynamics response in the transitional zone of the two large estuaries was analyzed, based on the synchronous hydrographic data in the winter of 2023, 2014 and 1983. The results revealed significant changes in regional hydrodynamics and suspended sediment transport, despite the continuous good correlations between the current velocity, suspended sediment concentration (SSC), water/sediment fluxes and tidal range. Specifically, the current velocity has been decreased by 8 -21% after 2014, mainly due to the land reclamation (implemented around 2016) with several groins stretching into deep water and altering alongshore hydrodynamics. The SSC has decreased further by 29 -38% on the basis ofin addition to the significant decrease during 1983 -2014. The SSC changes are related to the combination of river damming which induced sediment load reduction and land reclamation which enclosed a large amount of sediment. Furthermore, water/sediment exchange in this area has been weakened. Particularly, the sediment fluxes between the two estuarietransports from Changjiang Estuary to Hangzhou Bay have decreased by 36% -53%, explaining the observed bed erosion in the northern bay mouth in recent years. The findings are also relevant for studies on sediment dynamics in other large estuaries worldwide.

    Keywords: Sediment dynamics, Land reclamation, Sediment load reduction, Changjiang Estuary, Hangzhou Bay

    Received: 30 May 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Xie, Chen, Zhang, Wei, Gu and Duan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Dongfeng Xie, Zhejiang Institute of Hydraulics & Estuary, Hangzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.