The contribution of sand and mud to infilling of tidal basins in response to a closure dam

Alonso, Ángela; Maren, D.S. van; Elias, Edwin; Holthuijsen, Sander; Wang, Zheng Bing

doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2021.106544

Cited by 17 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In contrast to the first mode, the mud content (value of logit ( p mud )) and frequency of occurrence of more muddy areas (i.e., the second mode) can largely vary per sub‐area of the Wadden Sea (as defined in Figure 1b). Comparison with data from the 1990's (Rijkswaterstaat, 1998) reveals that the bimodal distribution of the mud content in the Wadden Sea has remained largely stable over the past decades (see also Colina Alonso et al., 2021). Apparently, the second mode is more sensitive to local conditions compared to the first mode, but does remain fairly constant over time.…”

Section: Field Data Reveal a Bimodal Mud Contentmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Existence and Origin of Multiple Equilibria in Sand‐Mud Sediment Beds

Alonso

Maren

Herman

et al. 2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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Most bed sediments in estuaries and tidal basins are a mixture of sand and mud, with spatial gradients in the sand/ mud content, typically with sandy outer areas near the inlet and fining in the landward direction. These gradients may be gradual or abrupt, and cover large spatial scales (e.g., a tidal basin) or small spatial scales (e.g., individual shoals). Especially at small spatial scales the transition in sediment composition may be abrupt (

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Section: Field Data Reveal a Bimodal Mud Contentmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Existence and Origin of Multiple Equilibria in Sand‐Mud Sediment Beds

Alonso

Maren

Herman

et al. 2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…The largest closure was that of the 3,600 km 2 large South Sea basin, leading to migration and infilling of tidal channels and sedimentation on flats. The response of the Western Wadden Sea can be analyzed using a set of nine composite bathymetric maps constructed from observations dating back to 1933 (see Colina Alonso et al, 2021) for details). The sediment distribution has been mapped in detail in 1990, and is annually surveyed since 2015 (Colina Alonso et al, 2021).…”

Section: The Wadden Sea: Morphological Response To Closure Of the Sou...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The response of the Western Wadden Sea can be analyzed using a set of nine composite bathymetric maps constructed from observations dating back to 1933 (see Colina Alonso et al, 2021) for details). The sediment distribution has been mapped in detail in 1990, and is annually surveyed since 2015 (Colina Alonso et al, 2021). This availability of data combined with the observation that the distribution of sand and mud did not vary greatly over time (Colina Alonso et al, 2021) allows differentiation between net deposition of sand and mud.…”

Section: The Wadden Sea: Morphological Response To Closure Of the Sou...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Land reclamations (Zhu et al, 2019;Weisscher et al, 2022;van Maren et al, 2023) and closure of secondary basins (Nnafie et al, 2018;Nnafie et al, 2019) influence tidal dynamics through loss of storage (Friedrichs and Aubrey, 1994) and friction (Stark et al, 2017). Closure of (secondary) tidal basins may lead to migration (Nnafie et al, 2018) and deepening (Nnafie et al, 2019) of primary tidal channels and basin infilling (Colina Alonso et al, 2021), or may increase SSC (through a reduction of sediment sinks (van Maren et al, 2016) or bed scouring (Cheng et al, 2020)) but also decrease SSC (through creation of sediment sinks; Chen et al, 2021). On a smaller scale, human interventions influence the morphology and substrate of intertidal areas through dredging and disposal (De Vriend et al, 2011;Temmerman et al, 2013;de Vet et al, 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Adaptation timescales of estuarine systems to human interventions

Maren

Alonso

Engels³

et al. 2023

Front. Earth Sci.

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Many estuaries and tidal basins are strongly influenced by various human interventions (land reclamations, infrastructure development, channel deepening, dredging and disposal of sediments). Such interventions lead to a range of hydrodynamic and morphological responses (a changing channel depth, tidal amplitude and/or suspended sediment concentration). The response time of a system to interventions is determined by the processes driving this change, the size of the system, and the magnitude of the intervention. A quantitative understanding of the response time to an intervention therefore provides important insight into the processes driving the response. In this paper we develop and apply a methodology to estimate the response timescales of human interventions using available morphological and hydraulic data. Fitting an exponential decay function to data with sufficient temporal resolution yields an adaptation timescale (and equilibrium value) of the tidal range and deposited sediment volumes. The method has been applied in the Dutch Wadden Sea, where two large basins were reclaimed and where long-term and detailed bathymetric maps are available. Exponential fitting the morphological data revealed that closure of a very large part of a tidal basin in the Wadden Sea initially led to internal redistribution and import of coarse and fine sediments, and was followed by a phase of extensive redistribution while only fine-grained sediments are imported. Closure of a smaller part of a smaller basin led to shorter response timescales, and these response timescales are also more sensitive to rising mean sea levels or high waters. The method has also been applied to tidal water level observations in the Scheldt and Ems estuaries. Exponential fits to tidal data reveal that adaptation timescales are shortest at the landward limit of dredging. The adaptation time increases in the landward direction because of retrogressive erosion (Scheldt) or lowering of the hydraulic roughness (Ems). The seaward increase in adaptation time is related to the seaward widening of both systems.

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“…Similar to the approach applied in this study, Colina Alonso et al . (2021) present a sediment budget study of the Wadden Sea by discriminating between sediment classes. Their conclusion is that the infilling of the Wadden Sea in response to a dam closure caused redistribution of sand and mud, which responded differently spatially and temporally.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting behaviour of sand and mud in a long‐term sediment budget of the Western Scheldt estuary

et al. 2022

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Understanding trends in estuarine sediment fluxes is of great interest to sustainable estuarine management addressing anthropogenic interferences and climate change. The long‐term sediment budget of the Western Scheldt estuary, Netherlands, is investigated by a detailed analysis of a unique and long‐term bathymetric data set and data of a three‐dimensional subsurface model (‘GeoTop’). Different sediment types show contrasting transport behaviour. The Western Scheldt narrowed and deepened, while the estuary exported sand (1.5 to 2.5 million m3 per year) and imported mud (0.5 to 1.5 million m3 per year) over the 1860 to 1955 period. The eroded sand originated from the channels in the seaward part of the estuary and was dispersed in all directions. A significant amount of mud permanently deposited in the side branches, which were also gradually reclaimed. These results suggest that sediment characteristics potentially play a crucial role in deriving long‐term sediment budgets and morphodynamic behaviour of estuarine environments. Future morphodynamic sand–mud model studies may reproduce and further explain the underlying transport processes of the current study.

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The contribution of sand and mud to infilling of tidal basins in response to a closure dam

Cited by 17 publications

References 42 publications

The Existence and Origin of Multiple Equilibria in Sand‐Mud Sediment Beds

The Existence and Origin of Multiple Equilibria in Sand‐Mud Sediment Beds

Adaptation timescales of estuarine systems to human interventions

Contrasting behaviour of sand and mud in a long‐term sediment budget of the Western Scheldt estuary

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