50,000 dams later: Erosion of the Yangtze River and its delta

Yang, S.L.; Milliman, John D.; Li, P.; Xu, Kehui

doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2010.09.006

Cited by 643 publications

(436 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…In recent decades, the transfer of suspended sediment to the sea from many of the world's rivers has drastically decreased as a result of human activities, primarily the construction of dams and irrigation (e.g., Dai et al 2009;Meade and Moody 2010;Milliman and Farnsworth 2011, and references therein), thereby influencing the rivers' deltas (e.g., Syvitski et al 2009;Yang et al 2011 and references therein). The response of SSC in estuarine and adjacent waters to human activities, however, has seldom been addressed (Schoellhamer 2011), probably due to a lack of adequate datasets.…”

Section: Surface Ssc In the Yangtze Estuary In Response To Decreasingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the long-term (decreasing) trend in SSC in the Yangtze Estuary and adjacent coastal waters is attributed mainly to a reduction in riverine suspended sediment supply. In the approaching decades, sediment supply from the Yangtze River is expected to further decrease following the construction of additional large dams (Yang et al 2011). While erosion of the subaqueous delta is expected to continue, the rate of erosion will probably slow as a result of previous erosion.…”

Section: Surface Ssc In the Yangtze Estuary In Response To Decreasingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1a) (e.g., Yang et al 2007;Hu et al 2009). In response to the increased damming of the river and the corresponding decreased sediment load, the Yangtze subaqueous delta is now eroding as much as 100,000,000 m 3 /year (Yang et al 2011). In this context, temporal and spatial variations of SSC in the Yangtze River, its estuary, and adjacent coastal waters become increasingly more complicated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Spatial, Temporal, and Human-Induced Variations in Suspended Sediment Concentration in the Surface Waters of the Yangtze Estuary and Adjacent Coastal Areas

Yang

Milliman

et al. 2012

Estuaries and Coasts

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113

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To delineate temporal and spatial variations in suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in the Yangtze (Changjiang) Estuary and adjacent coastal waters, surfacewater samples were taken twice daily from 10 stations over periods ranging from 2 to 12 years (total number of samples >28,000). Synoptic measurements in 2009 showed an increase in surface SSC from 0.058 g/l in the upper sections of the estuary to ∼0.6 g/l at the Yangtze River turbidity maximum at the river mouth, decreasing seaward to 0.057 g/l. Annual periodicities reflect variations in the Yangtze discharge, which affect the horizontal distribution and transport of SSC, and seasonal winds, which result in vertical resuspension and mixing. Over the past 10-20 years, annual surface SSC in the lower Yangtze River and the upper estuary has decreased by 55%, due mainly to dam construction in the upper and middle reaches of the river. The 20-30% decrease in mean surface SSC in the lower estuary and adjacent coastal waters over the same period presumably reflects sediment resuspension, in part due to erosion of the subaqueous Yangtze Delta. SSCs in the estuary and adjacent coastal waters are expected to continue to decline as new dams are constructed in the Yangtze basin and as erosion of the subaqueous delta slows in coming decades.

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Section: Surface Ssc In the Yangtze Estuary In Response To Decreasingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Surface Ssc In the Yangtze Estuary In Response To Decreasingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Spatial, Temporal, and Human-Induced Variations in Suspended Sediment Concentration in the Surface Waters of the Yangtze Estuary and Adjacent Coastal Areas

Yang

Milliman

et al. 2012

Estuaries and Coasts

Self Cite

113

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“…Shanghai is bounded to the north by the Yangtze River estuary, to the east by the East China Sea, and to the south by Hangzhou Bay. The deposits, in most of the city, are soft sediments that were formed during the Quaternary Era [45]. The buried depth of bedrock ranges between 200 and 300 m. The land area of Shanghai covers about 6000 km 2 and is mostly flat, with altitudes ranging between 2 and 6 m above sea level.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The buried depth of bedrock ranges between 200 and 300 m. The land area of Shanghai covers about 6000 km 2 and is mostly flat, with altitudes ranging between 2 and 6 m above sea level. The city is crossed by the Yangtze River, which is the longest river in Asia, and it is also ranked 4th globally in terms of sediment loads (470 Mt/year) [45].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Use of C-/X-Band Time-Gapped SAR Data and Geotechnical Models for the Study of Shanghai’s Ocean-Reclaimed Lands through the SBAS-DInSAR Technique

et al. 2016

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Abstract:In this work, we investigate the temporal evolution of ground deformation affecting the ocean-reclaimed lands of the Shanghai (China) megacity, from 2007 to 2016, by applying the Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) technique known as the Small BAseline Subset (SBAS) algorithm. For the analysis, we exploited two sets of non-time-overlapped synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, acquired from 2007 to 2010, by the ASAR/ENVISAT (C-band) instrument, and from 2014 to 2016 by the X-band COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) sensors. The long time gap (of about three years) existing between the available C-and X-band datasets made the generation of unique displacement time-series more difficult. Nonetheless, this problem was successfully solved by benefiting from knowledge of time-dependent geotechnical models, which describe the temporal evolution of the expected deformation affecting Shanghai's ocean-reclaimed platforms. The combined ENVISAT/CSK (vertical) deformation time-series were analyzed to gain insight into the future evolution of displacement signals within the investigated area. As an outcome, we find that ocean-reclaimed lands in Shanghai experienced, between 2007 and 2016, average cumulative (vertical) displacements extending down to 25 centimeters.

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Impacts of salt marsh plants on tidal channel initiation and inheritance

Schwarz

Wal

et al. 2014

JGR Earth Surface

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At the transition between mudflat and salt marsh, vegetation is traditionally regarded as a sustaining factor for previously incised mudflat channels, able to conserve the channel network via bank stabilization following plant colonization (i.e., vegetation-stabilized channel inheritance). This is in contrast to recent studies revealing vegetation as the main driver of tidal channel emergence through vegetation-induced channel erosion. We present a coupled hydrodynamic morphodynamic plant growth model to simulate plant expansion and channel formation by our model species (Spartina alterniflora) during a mudflat-salt marsh transition with various initial bathymetries (flat, shoal dense, shoal sparse, and deep dense channels). This simulated landscape development is then compared to remote sensing images of the Yangtze estuary, China, and the Scheldt estuary in Netherlands. Our results propose the existence of a threshold in preexisting mudflat channel depth, which favors either vegetation-stabilized channel inheritance or vegetation-induced channel erosion processes. The increase in depth of preexisting mudflat channels favors flow routing through them, consequently leaving less flow and momentum remaining for vegetation-induced channel erosion processes. This threshold channel depth will be influenced by field specific parameters such as hydrodynamics (tidal range and flow), sediment characteristics, and plant species. Hence, our study shows that the balance between vegetation-stabilized channel inheritance and vegetation-induced channel erosion depends on ecosystem properties.

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50,000 dams later: Erosion of the Yangtze River and its delta

Cited by 643 publications

References 34 publications

Spatial, Temporal, and Human-Induced Variations in Suspended Sediment Concentration in the Surface Waters of the Yangtze Estuary and Adjacent Coastal Areas

Spatial, Temporal, and Human-Induced Variations in Suspended Sediment Concentration in the Surface Waters of the Yangtze Estuary and Adjacent Coastal Areas

The Use of C-/X-Band Time-Gapped SAR Data and Geotechnical Models for the Study of Shanghai’s Ocean-Reclaimed Lands through the SBAS-DInSAR Technique

Impacts of salt marsh plants on tidal channel initiation and inheritance

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