Analysis of tidal average saturated suspended sediment concentration of cohesive sediment in the Yangtze Estuary

Author(s):  
Junyu Tao ◽  
Peng Hu ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Zhiguo He

<p>It is generally believed that sediment erosion and deposition can’t occur simultaneously, which is also reflected in the classical Partheniades-Krone formulas used to calculate erosion and deposition flux. In this study, the erosion and deposition fluxes of cohesive sediment are integrated in the tidal period respectively, and when they are equal, the corresponding suspended cohesive sediment concentration is called ‘tidal average saturated concentration of cohesive sediment’. Theoretical analysis of the factors affecting the saturated concentration indicates that a large erosion coefficient results in a high saturated concentration level. The corresponding critical erosion and deposition shear stresses (i.e., τ<sub>e </sub>and τ<sub>d</sub>) at saturated concentration have many possibilities. Therefore, it is understandable that good agreement of suspended sediment concentration between simulation and observation have been obtained by adjusting τ<sub>e </sub>and τ<sub>d </sub>in the previous numerical simulation calibration. According to the relative magnitude of τ<sub>e </sub>and τ<sub>d</sub> at saturated concentration, the erosion and deposition fluxes of cohesive sediment can be divided into four situations: weak erosion (i.e., τ<sub>e  ></sub> τ<sub>d</sub>), intense erosion (i.e., τ<sub>e  <</sub> τ<sub>d</sub>), intense deposition (i.e., τ<sub>e  <</sub> τ<sub>d</sub>), and weak deposition (i.e., τ<sub>e > </sub>τ<sub>d</sub> ). A two-dimensional numerical model is applied to calculate the temporal and spatial variation of the saturated concentration of cohesive sediment in the Yangtze Estuary. Simulation results shows the following findings. 1) The impact of the fraction of the kth size class in the surface (top) layer of bed material on erosion flux of non-uniform cohesive sediment is necessary to be considered. Otherwise, the calculated saturated concentration of cohesive sediment is greater than the measured. 2) The differences between saturated concentration and the field calculated/measured suspended sediment concentration can be applied to infer bed erosion/deposition characteristics to some extent, and compared it with the measured erosion/deposition result, which in turn verifies the values of  τ<sub>e </sub>and τ<sub>d</sub> in the model. This finding provides insights for the following research on transport and diffusion of cohesive sediment in estuary and coastal areas.</p>

2013 ◽  
Vol 353-356 ◽  
pp. 2763-2768 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Ling Hao ◽  
Tong Cao ◽  
Zhu Jun Zhang ◽  
Li Ping Yin

Suspended sediment concentration is important index of water quality, and assessment coefficient of water environment. Remote sensing technology can overcome the shortcomings of conventional methods, such as low speed, long period, and scarce temporal and spatial data distribution. Thus it is meaningful to introduce remote sensing technology to monitoring suspended sediment. In this paper, two TM/ETM+ images of the Yangtze estuary were utilized, and based on review of available domestic and overseas remote sensing data of suspended sediment, also combined with analysis on the 21 samples of synchronizing collection on April 28, 2009 and 3 samples of synchronizing collection on March 26, 2000 at the same time of satellite passing through respectively, the inversion model of satellite quantitative data was setup correlated to suspended sediment concentration. Then the classification diagram of sediment concentration in the surface water at the South Branch of the Yangtze Estuary was drawn. This study gets the following conclusions:(1) TM4 band reflection coefficient is more related to surface sediment concentration, the correlation coefficient is 0.884. (2)Through the regression analysis, the quantitative remote sensing model is established. By the mode, using satellite picture, sediment concentration distribution map in study area is obtained. (3)The diffusion law of suspended sediment, the range of high turbid water region and the estuarine sediment transportation were further discussed from monitoring data, and its characteristic phenomenon were observed and the cause was also explained.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heqin Cheng ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Lizhi Teng ◽  
Xiaoting Yuan

<p><span><span>During the last decades, many estuarine systems in Europe (e.g. the Elbe, Ems, Loire) have shown increases in tidal range and in turbidity, which are linked to local human activity (i.e., deepening). Compared to these European estuaries, the Yangtze Estuary is much larger in scales, experiences much stronger river discharge, and it is subject to a strong seasonal variation in freshwater and sediment supply from the drainage area. Moreover, the Yangtze estuary is a complex network with several branches, connecting channels. The changes in the flow and sediment dynamics in the estuary may result from both local and nonlocal human activities. Despite the intense research efforts over the past two decades, it is still unclear which impact (local or nonlocal) is responsible for the changing flow and sediment characteristics in the estuary. Deep investigation of tidal characteristic quantities such as extreme tidal level, tidal range, amplitude of tidal constituents, tidal characteristic coefficient and suspended sediment concentration is performed in a systematic manner. It is accomplished using the extreme value analysis, the wavelet analysis and harmonic analysis of water level at 11 hydrography stations along the tidal river channel (Datong-Nanjing reach) and estuarine section (downstream the Xuliujing) during 2008-2016. Similar data analysis is also performed for the last four decades of 20th century and results are compared with the analysis of the recent measurements. The driving forces of the significant changes in tidal characteristic quantities and suspended sediment concentration are discussed. Results show that the tidal dynamics in the Yangtze estuary has been enhanced. Its seasonal variation is attributed to the adjustment of runoff distribution, which is mainly caused by the operation of Three Gorges Dam. In short-term, local changes of flow/sediment dynamics, terrain changes play a major role. In the long term (on the 40-year time scale), the effect of sea level rise on the increasing M2 constituent is obvious. This has mainly resulted from the enhancing anti-clockwise rotation of the synchronous tidal phase.</span></span></p><p> </p>


2012 ◽  
Vol 256-259 ◽  
pp. 2573-2576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Feng Tong ◽  
Tao Yin ◽  
Jian Shi ◽  
Yu Yang Shao

For the construction of water conservancy project in the upstream of the Yangtze River and the human activities, the runoff and sediment discharge from the upstream to East China Sea have changed greatly. To explore the distribution characteristics of suspended sediment in Yangtze Estuary under the new upstream boundary condition, a 2-D flow-sediment numerical model including the Yangtze Estuary and the Hangzhou Bay was established. Four different runoffs, which are 4,620m³/s, 11,000m³/s, 75,900m³/s and 90,000m³/s respectively, and the correspond sediment discharges were considered. The result indicates that, with the increase of upstream runoff, the sediment intrusion from the top of the North Branch into the North Branch decreases and the suspended sediment concentration field in the South Branch changes is greater than that in the North Branch. In the same region, the sediment concentration decreases during rising tide while it increases at low tide. The change of the core position for suspended sediment field is insignificant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caiwen Shu ◽  
Guangming Tan ◽  
Yiwei Lv ◽  
Quanxi Xu

AbstractUsing experimental data of near-bed suspended sediment concentrations at five typical hydrometric stations of the Three Gorges Reservoir at the early reserving stage, the differences were investigated between the common method and improved method during flood seasons and non-flood seasons. The impact of taking measurements below 0.2 times the water depth on the results was discussed. The results show that the average discharges and velocities at each station calculated by the common method were slightly larger than those calculated by the improved method. Regarding the suspended sediment concentration at each station, the errors in the reservoir and downstream channels in dynamic equilibrium state were small, and the largest errors occurred where the river bed was strongly scoured in the downstream reach below the large dam. There was no significant relationship between water discharge and flow velocity, and the missed measurement phenomenon also occurred. The sediment discharge error was affected by the suspended sediment concentration, implying that errors usually occurred in channels with serious erosion during flood seasons. The correction coefficients (R2) of sediment discharge at each station were given during the experiment, which showed that the sediment discharges at the hydrometric stations where a large amount of sediment transport occurred near the river bottom, needed to be modified. Furthermore, the test methods proposed in this study were applied to calculate the sediment discharges of three rivers, and the results indicate that this method can narrow the gap between bathymetric comparisons and sediment load measurements.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 7137-7175 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. A. Buschman ◽  
A. J. F. Hoitink ◽  
S. M. de Jong ◽  
P. Hoekstra

Abstract. Forest clearing for reasons of timber production, open pit mining and the establishment of oil palm plantations generally results in excessively high sediment loads in the tropics. The increasing sediment fluxes pose a threat to coastal marine ecosystems such as coral reefs. This study presents observations of suspended sediment fluxes in the Berau river (Indonesia), which debouches into a coastal ocean that can be considered the preeminent center of coral diversity. The Berau is an example of a small river draining a mountainous, relatively pristine basin that receives abundant rainfall. Flow velocity was measured over a large part of the river width at a station under the influence of tides, using a Horizontal Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (HADCP). Surrogate measurements of suspended sediment concentration were taken with an Optical Backscatter Sensor (OBS). Tidally averaged suspended sediment concentration increases with river discharge, implying that the tidally averaged suspended sediment flux increases non-linearly with river discharge. Averaged over the 6.5 weeks observations covered by the benchmark survey, the tidally averaged suspended sediment flux was estimated at 2 Mt y−1. Considering the wet conditions during the observation period, this figure may be considered as an upper limit of the yearly averaged flux. This flux is significantly smaller than what could have been expected from the characteristics of the catchment. The consequences of ongoing clearing of rainforest were explored using a plot scale erosion model. When rainforest, which still covered 50–60 % of the basin in 2007, is converted to production land, soil loss is expected to increase with a factor between 10 and 100. If this soil loss is transported seaward as suspended sediment, the increase in suspended sediment flux in the Berau river would impose a severe sediment stress on the global hotspot of coral reef diversity. The impact of land cover changes will largely depend on the degree in which the Berau estuary acts as a sediment trap.


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