Role of wind in erosion-accretion cycles on an estuarine mudflat

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2017

Abstract

Wind is an important regulator of coastal erosion and accretion processes that have significant ecological and engineering implications. Nevertheless, previous studies have mainly focused on storm-generated changes in the bed level. This paper aims to improve the understanding of wind-induced erosion-accretion cycles on intertidal flats under normal (nonstormy) weather conditions using data that relates to the wave climate, near-bed 3-D flow velocity, suspended sediment concentration, and bed-level changes on a mudflat at the Yangtze Delta front. The following parameters were calculated at 10 min intervals over 10 days: the wind wave orbital velocity (Ûδ), bed shear stress from combined current-wave action, erosion flux, deposition flux, and predicted bed-level change. The time series of measured and predicted bed-level changes both show tidal cycles and a 10 day cycle. We attribute the tidal cycles of bed-level changes to tidal dynamics, but we attribute the 10 day cycle of bed-level changes to the interaction between wind speed/direction and neap-spring cyclicity. We conclude that winds can significantly affect bed-level changes in mudflats even during nonstormy weather and under macro-mesotidal conditions and that the bed-level changes can be predicted well using current-wave-sediment combined models.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans

First Page

193

Last Page

206

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS