IMPACTS OF CHANNEL DEEPENING ON SEDIMENT TRANSPORT MECHANISMS IN A MESOTIDAL ESTUARY

Abstract

Carefully assessing the environmental impacts of human interventions in estuaries on sediment transport and morphodynamics has become increasingly important due to the high ecological importance of these systems. Man-made changes are typically quantified with numerical sediment transport models. However, setting up these models and more importantly interpreting their results requires a profound knowledge of the natural system and present-day transport processes. This contribution focusses on the mechanisms of sediment transport in a mesotidal estuary and discusses possible impacts of a channel deepening on those mechanisms and their expected impact on long-term changes on sediment transport. The processes are described on the basis of field data and simulations.