Coupling of sea level changes and neotectonic activities in the Pearl River Delta─insight from stratigraphic profile and chronology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Huang ◽  
Hao Liang
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Pearl River Delta ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Luminescence Dating ◽  
Tectonic Subsidence ◽  
Pearl River ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Hypsometric Integral ◽  
Topographic High

<p>        Despite several tens of Pleistocene eustatic oscillations, it is surprised that only two marine sequences were preserved in the PRD (Pearl River Delta), the third biggest delta along the mainland China coast. The younger marine sequence (SQ1) has been consensus on the age of Holocene, i.e., MIS1, whereas the chronology of the older marine sequence (SQ2) is still in debate, i.e. belongs to MIS3 or MIS5. Those favor younger transgression suggest rapid uplift following the SQ2 deposited according to <sup>14</sup>C and early luminescence dating, while the others argued that the current depth of SQ2 is affected by tectonic subsidence and better match the sea-level altitude in MIS5. To address this problem, it is significant to investigate a complete spatial distribution of SQ2 prior to dating. We applied 250 boreholes to acquire 5 Quaternary stratigraphic profiles throughout the PRD. These profiles reveal that the deposition area of SQ2 with current depth at -15 - -35m a.s.l. only reach the southern part of PRD, showing a much less area than SQ1. Sediments synchronous to SQ2 in the northern part of PRD present coarse grain in fluvial or piedmont environment, implying an erosional state. Preliminary OSL dating on SQ2 in boreholes in southern PRD yielded 85.5±5 ka, suggesting the SQ2 probably deposited in MIS5, here we infer to the high sea-level in MIS5a with altitude at ca. -20m. Moreover, we estimate the isostasy by erosion of granite highland in/around the PRD via hypsometric integral curve. We find that the modern average altitude of the highland is ca. 100-150m lower than the estimated isostatic altitude, suggesting tectonic subsidence in PRD. Overall, we interpret that the PRD was an eroding highland and keep subsiding since MIS5. Because of the topographic high, transgression occurred in MIS5 did not extend northward to modern delta area and led to absence of SQ2 in northern PRD. Subjected to tectonic subsidence, the once topographic high subsided beneath the modern sea-level but still higher the sea-level in MIS3. Marine sequence did not develop in PRD until transgression occurred in Holocene.</p>

Design Aesthetics of Transborder Infrastructure in the Pearl River Delta

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-152
Author(s):  
Max Hirsh
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Pearl River Delta ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Air Travel ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Pearl River ◽  
The Pearl River Delta ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Pearl River

Design Aesthetics of Transborder Infrastructure in the Pearl River Delta investigates the development of a “transborder” ferry network that allows passengers in Mainland China to fly through Hong Kong International Airport without going through customs and immigration controls. Located deep inside Guangdong Province, these facilities cater to travelers whose movement across international frontiers is limited by their income or citizenship. Focusing on two of these terminals, Max Hirsh argues that the prevailing emphasis on iconic structures in the architectural history of air travel has overshadowed the emergence of distinctly un-iconic aviation facilities designed to plug less-privileged people and places into broader networks of international air travel. Hirsh locates this infrastructural innovation in the historical context of the region and interrogates its spatial logic and aesthetic composition in an effort to model a new understanding of urban space: one that illuminates an architecture of incipient global mobility that has been inconspicuously inserted into ordinary places and unspectacular structures throughout the Pearl River Delta.

scholarly journals Quantification of Multiple Climate Change and Human Activity Impact Factors on Flood Regimes in the Pearl River Delta of China

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yihan Tang ◽  
Shufeng Xi ◽  
Xiaohong Chen ◽  
Yanqing Lian
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Pearl River Delta ◽  
River Network ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Pearl River ◽  
The Pearl River Delta ◽  
The Pearl River ◽  
Flood Flow

Coastal flood regimes have been irreversibly altered by both climate change and human activities. This paper aims to quantify the impacts of multiple factors on delta flood. The Pearl River Delta (PRD), with dense river network and population, is one of the most developed coastal areas in China. The recorded extreme water level (m.s.l.) in flood season has been heavily interfered with by varied income flood flow, sea-level rise, and dredged riverbeds. A methodology, composed of a numerical model and the indexR, has been developed to quantify the impacts of these driving factors in the the PRD. Results show that the flood level varied 4.29%–53.49% from the change of fluvial discharge, 3.35%–38.73% from riverbed dredging, and 0.12%–16.81% from sea-level rise. The variation of flood flow apparently takes the most effect and sea-level rise the least. In particular, dense river network intensifies the impact of income flood change and sea-level rise. Findings from this study help understand the causes of the the PRD flood regimes and provide theoretical support for flood protection in the delta region.

scholarly journals Spatial and seasonal variations of aerosols over China from two decades of multi-satellite observations. Part II: AOD time series for 1995–2017 combined from ATSR ADV and MODIS C6.1 for AOD tendencies estimation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larisa Sogacheva ◽  
Edith Rodriguez ◽  
Pekka Kolmonen ◽  
Timo H. Virtanen ◽  
Giulia Saponaro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Emission Reduction ◽  
Pearl River Delta ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Pearl River ◽  
The Pearl River Delta ◽  
The Pearl River ◽  
Se China

Abstract. Understanding long-term trends in aerosol loading is essential for evaluating the health and climate effects of airborne particulates as well as the effectiveness of pollution control policies. Here we introduce a method to construct a combined annual and seasonal AOD long time series using the Along-Track Scanning Radiometers (ATSR: ATSR-2 and AATSR) and MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Terra (MODIS/Terra), which together cover the period of 1995–2017. The long-term (1995–2017) annual and seasonal combined AOD time series are presented for the all of mainland China, for southeastern (SE) China and for 10 selected regions in China and analyzed to reveal the AOD tendencies during the last 23 years. Linear regression has been applied to individual L3 (1°×1°) pixels of the annual and seasonal combined AOD time series to estimate the AOD tendencies for three periods: 1995–2006 (P1) and 2011–2017 (P2), as regarding the changes in the emission reduction policies, and the whole period 1995–2017 (WP), when combined AOD time series is available. Positive tendencies of annual AOD (0.006, or 2 % of AOD, per year) prevailed across all of mainland China before 2006 due to emission increases induced by rapid economic development. In southeastern China, the annual AOD positive tendency in 1995–2006 was 0.014, or 3 % of AOD, per year in SE China, reaching maxima (0.020, or 4 % of AOD, per year) in Shanghai and the Pearl River Delta regions. Negative AOD tendencies (−0.015, or −6 % of AOD, per year) were identified across most of China after 2011 in conjunction with effective emission reduction in anthropogenic primary aerosols, SO2 and NOx (Jin et al., 2016, van der A et al., 2017). The strongest AOD decrease is observed in Chengdu (−0.045, or −8 % of AOD, per year) and Zhengzhou (−0.046, or −9 % of AOD, per year) areas, while over the North China plane and coastal areas the AOD decrease was lower than −0.03, or ca. −6 % of AOD, per year. In the less populated areas, the AOD decrease was small. The AOD tendencies for the whole period 1995–2017 were much less pronounced compared to P1 and P2. The reason for that is that positive AOD tendency has been observed at the beginning of WP (in P1) and negative AOD tendency has been observed at the end of WP (in P2), which partly cancel each other during 1995–2017. In the WP, AOD was slightly increasing over the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area (0.008, or 1.3 % of AOD, per year) and the Pearl River Delta (0.004, or 0.6 % of AOD, per year). A slightly negative AOD tendency (−0.004, or −0.7 % per year) was observed in the Chengdu and Zhengzhou areas. Seasonal patterns in the AOD regional long-term trend are evident. The contribution of seasonal AOD tendencies in annual tendencies was not equal along the year. While the annual AOD tendency was positive in 1995–2006, the AOD tendencies in winter and spring were slightly negative (ca. −0.002, or −1 % of AOD, per year) over the most of China during that period. AOD tendencies were positive in summer (0.008, or 2 % of AOD, per year) and autumn (0.006, or 6 % of AOD, per year) over all mainland China and SE China (0.020, or 4 % of AOD, per year and 0.016, or 4 % of AOD, per year in summer and autumn, respectively). The AOD negative tendencies in 2011–2017 were higher compared to other seasons in summer over China (ca. −0.021, or −7 % of AOD, per year) and over SE China (ca. −0.048, or −9 % of AOD, per year). The results obtained in the current study show that the effect of the changes in the emission regulations policy in China during 1995–2017 is evident in AOD gradual decrease after 2011. The effect is more visible in the highly populated and industrialized regions in SE China.

scholarly journals The Coupling Effect of Flood Discharge and Storm Surge on Extreme Flood Stages: A Case Study in the Pearl River Delta, South China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianwei Wang ◽  
Yu Guo ◽  
Jie Ren
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Pearl River Delta ◽  
Coupling Effect ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Pearl River ◽  
The Pearl River Delta ◽  
Extreme Flood ◽  
The Pearl River

AbstractThe low-lying Pearl River Delta in South China is subject to severe flood threats due to watershed floods, sea level rise, and storm surges. It is still unknown to what extent and how far inland storm surges and sea level rise impact the extreme flood stages. This study investigated the coupling effect of flood discharge and storm surge on the extreme flood stages in the Pearl River Delta by using on site observations and simulations generated by the Hydrologic Engineering Center-River Analysis System model. The results show that flood discharges dominated the flood stages in the middle and upper Pearl River Delta, while the storm surges had maximum impact near the river mouth. The storm surges and flood stages showed a significant increase after 2002 in the Hengmen waterway. The design flood stages for the post-2002 period were 0.23–0.89 m higher than the pre-2002 ones at Hengmen at the six return periods from 5 to 200 years examined in this study. Their difference declined toward the upper waterway and reduced to zero about 23 km away from the Hengmen outlet. The coincidence of extreme flood discharges and storm surges further escalates the extreme flood stages in the lower 30 km of estuarine waterways. Our results quantify the severe threats due to sea level rise and intensified storm surges in the lower Pearl River Delta, and are significant for urban planning and designing and managing flood control facilities in the Pearl River Delta and in other coastal fluvial deltas.

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