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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Erosion and Sediment Transport".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 36373

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yonggang Jia

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Guest Editor

College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China
Interests: marine engineering geology; marine geohazards; ocean observations; in situ tests; wave-sediment interaction

Prof. Dr. J. Paul Liu

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Guest Editor

Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
Interests: late quaternary sea-level change and ocean margin evolution; large river deltaic deposits and sedimentary processes; land–ocean interactions; watershed and estuarine GIS modeling; geophysical surveys

Dr. Chaoqi Zhu

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Guest Editor

Ocean University of China, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, China
Interests: submarine landslides; sediment instability
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sediment dynamics describe the formation, distribution, and movement of sediments. Furthermore, the sediment dynamics in coastal and marine environments are involved in an extremely complicated and not fully understood process. This process is subject to the influence of many environmental factors and human activities occurring at different temporal and spatial scales. A comprehensive understanding of sediment dynamics requires integrated analysis of the joint contributions of oceanographical, geological, hydrological, biological, and chemical processes and their coupling.

This Special Issue will focus on Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environments and publish original research papers, comprehensive reviews, case studies, and technical notes. Papers on all the subfields of sediment dynamics are welcomed. We hope that scientists, engineers, policymakers, business leaders, and private citizens can be engaged in this discussion on sediment dynamics, and the theoretical, applied, and practical research presented in this Special Issue will further the understanding of sediment dynamics.

Prof. Dr. Yonggang Jia
Prof. Dr. J. Paul Liu
Dr. Chaoqi Zhu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

waves and currents
internal waves
sediments
erosion and resuspension
sediment transport
coastal hazards

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

4 pages, 175 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environments: Scientific Advances

by Xuezhi Feng, Chaoqi Zhu, J. Paul Liu and Yonggang Jia

Water 2023, 15(7), 1404; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15071404 - 4 Apr 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3465

Abstract

Sediment dynamics describe the processes of the formation, distribution, and movement of sediments [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environment)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

19 pages, 10656 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Land Subsidence Assessment of an Archipelago Based on the InSAR Time Series Analysis Method

by Deming Ma, Rui Zhao, Yongsheng Li and Zhengguang Li

Water 2023, 15(3), 465; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15030465 - 24 Jan 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3098

Abstract

The lack of resources on islands leads to their extremely rapid development, and this can result in frequent geological disasters involving island subsidence. These disasters not only destroy the ecological environment and landscape of islands but also pose massive threats to the safety of residents’ lives and property and can even affect the country’s maritime rights and interests. To meet the demands of island stability and safety monitoring, in this study, we propose a large-area, full-coverage deformation monitoring method using InSAR technology to assess island subsidence based on a comprehensive analysis of conventional monitoring techniques. The working principle and unique advantages of InSAR data are introduced, and the SBAS InSAR key interpretation processing flow are described in detail. The GPU-assisted InSAR processing method is used to improve the processing efficiency. The monitoring results showed that the southern island group of the Miaodao Archipelago was relatively stable overall, with an annual average deformation rate of 3 mm. Only a few areas experienced large-magnitude surface deformation, and the maximum annual deformation magnitude was 45 mm. The time series deformation results of the characteristic points of the five inhabited islands in the southern island group showed that the subsidence trends of the two selected points on Beichangshan Island (P1 and P2) were slowly declining. The P3 point on Nanchangshan Island experienced a large deformation, while the P4 point experienced a relatively small deformation. The selected points (P5, P6 and P7) on Miaodao Island, Xiaoheishan Island and Daheishan Island were stable during the monitoring period. InSAR data can be used to accurately identify the millimetre-scale microdeformations experienced by island groups, thus demonstrating the high-precision deformation monitoring capability of these data. In addition, the accuracy of these data can meet the needs of island and archipelago subsidence monitoring, and the proposed method is an effective means to monitor the spatial deformation of island targets. This study is conducive to further enriching and improving island stability and safety monitoring technology systems in China and to providing data and technical support for identifying and mastering potential island risks, protecting and utilizing islands and preventing and reducing disasters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environment)

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18 pages, 6780 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of the Causes of Erosion-Deposition between Yellow River, Yangtze River and Mekong River Subaqueous Deltas II: Comparative Analysis

by Bowen Li, J. Paul Liu and Yonggang Jia

Water 2023, 15(1), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15010038 - 22 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1985

Abstract

The estuary delta is an area where human economic activities are active and natural ecological environment is fragile. With global change and the intensification of human activities, coastal and seabed erosion around the world is becoming more and more serious. In this paper, we used the Delft 3D numerical simulation to compare the hydrodynamic effects of sediment transport paths in the Yellow River delta (river-controlled type), Yangtze River delta (tidal type) and Mekong River delta (tidal wave type) in the East Asian monsoon area, and analyzed the causes of accumulation erosion landform distribution in three different types of subaqueous deltas. This study finds the Yellow River Delta has experienced varying degrees of erosion at the estuary, but its subaqueous delta is still dominated by deposition; the Yangtze River Delta has ensured the stability of its shoreline under the influence of artificial shoreline reinforcement, but the subaqueous delta (water depth: 0–15 m) is in a state of erosion all year round; and in the Mekong River Delta the erosion occurs in both its shoreline and subaqueous delta. Additionally, only by analyzing the erosion and deposition within the transport range of resuspended sediment, the changes in the properties of the entire subaqueous delta could be recognized. The research results can not only be helpful to analyze whether the change of river sediment will lead to the change of delta type under human influence, but also provide more powerful scientific support for the protection of delta ecological environment, geological environment safety and geological disaster prevention. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environment)

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22 pages, 4020 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Developments of Dynamic Shoreline Planform of Crenulate-Shaped Bay by a Novel Evolution Formulation

by Hung-Cheng Tao, Tai-Wen Hsu and Chia-Ming Fan

Water 2022, 14(21), 3504; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14213504 - 2 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1694

Abstract

In this paper, a simple evolution formulation, based on polar coordinate, is proposed to efficiently and accurately simulate the dynamic movement of sandy shoreline in a crenulate-shaped bay. The consistent actions by seasonal waves and swell usually result in severe erosion or deposition along sandy shoreline, so some mathematical formulations and numerical models, based on the concept of headland control, have been recently proposed to forecast and protect the shoreline planform. A simple and general formulation is derived in this study by considering the balance of longshore sediment transport, since the accurate prediction of dynamic movements of high planform-curvature shoreline in the shadow zone behind a headland is essential and critical to the headland control. The proposed formulation can be directly adopted to accurately and simply simulate the temporal variations of shoreline in both of the hooked zone, where is protected by a headland, and the unhooked zone, where is straight attacked by incident waves. Numerical results and comparisons of temporal variation of shoreline between two headlands are provided in this paper to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed evolution formulation. Besides, different time increments and different numbers of control volume are adopted to examine the merits of the proposed numerical model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environment)

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18 pages, 9301 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of the Causes of Erosion–Deposition between Yellow River, Yangtze River, and Mekong River Subaqueous Delta l: Model Building

by Bowen Li, Jing Paul Liu and Yonggang Jia

Water 2022, 14(20), 3208; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14203208 - 12 Oct 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2519

Abstract

An estuary delta is an area with active human economic activities and a fragile natural ecological environment. With the intensification of global changes and human activities, coastal and seabed erosion around the world is becoming more and more serious. This study compared the hydrodynamic effect and sediment diffusion path at the Yellow River subaqueous delta (river control type) and the Yangtze River subaqueous delta (tide-river type) in the East Asian monsoon area using a Delft 3D numerical simulation to analyse the causes of the distribution of accumulation and erosion landform in the different types of subaqueous deltas. This study found that the river deltas were dominated by the river when the accumulation landforms concentrated in the direction of the Coriolis forces, which was due to hydrodynamic erosion driven by wind, and the sediment diffusion range was mainly concentrated in shallow water areas (water depth < 6 m), resulting the Yellow River subaqueous delta presenting the pattern of “northern erosion and south accumulation”. The Yangtze River subaqueous delta was controlled by tidal effects, making the southern part of the estuary more susceptible to erosion. The research results can not only further deepen the understanding of the physical process and mechanism of erosion and deposition in the subaqueous delta but also provide stronger scientific support for the deltas’ ecological environment protection, geological environment safety, and disaster geology prevention. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environment)

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14 pages, 3934 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimating Suspended Sediment Fluxes from the Largest Glacial Lake in Svalbard to Fjord System Using Sentinel-2 Data: Trebrevatnet Case Study

by Jan Kavan, Iwo Wieczorek, Guy D. Tallentire, Mihail Demidionov, Jakub Uher and Mateusz C. Strzelecki

Water 2022, 14(12), 1840; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14121840 - 7 Jun 2022

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4948

Abstract

Glacier-fed hydrological systems in high latitude regions experience high seasonal variation in meltwater runoff. The peak in runoff usually coincides with the highest air temperatures which drive meltwater production. This process is often accompanied by the release of sediments from within the glacier system that are transported and suspended in high concentrations as they reach the proglacial realm. Sediment-laden meltwater is later transported to the marine environment and is expressed on the surface of fjords and coastal waters as sediment plumes. Direct monitoring of these processes requires complex and time-intensive fieldwork, meaning studies of these processes are rare. This paper demonstrates the seasonal dynamics of the Trebrevatnet lake complex and evolution of suspended sediment in the lake and sediment plumes in the adjacent Ekmanfjorden. We use the Normalized Difference Suspended Sediment Index (NDSSI) derived from multi-temporal Sentinel-2 images for the period between 2016–2021. We propose a new SSL index combining the areal extent of the sediment plume with the NDSSI for quantification of the sediment influx to the marine environment. The largest observed sediment plume was recorded on 30 July 2018 and extended to more than 40 km² and a SSL index of 10.4. We identified the greatest sediment concentrations in the lake in the beginning of August, whereas the highest activity of the sediment plumes is concentrated at the end of July. The temporal pattern of these processes stays relatively stable throughout all ablation seasons studied. Sediment plumes observed with the use of optical satellite remote sensing data may be used as a proxy for meltwater runoff from the glacier-fed Trebrevatnet system. We have shown that remote-sensing-derived suspended sediment indexes can (after proper in situ calibration) serve for large scale quantification of sediment flux to fjord and coastal environments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environment)

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23 pages, 14681 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reconstruction of Planforms and Architecture of the Meandering Paleo-Channels—A Case Study of the 1st Member of Shanxi Formation, Central of Sulige Gas Field, Ordos Basin

by Xue Yan, Jinliang Zhang, Yang Li, Yan Zhang and Long Sun

Water 2022, 14(3), 477; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14030477 - 5 Feb 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2618

Abstract

Although a large number of meandering rivers have been studied by means of modern sedimentation, instrument detection, numerical simulation, flume experiment and field outcrop, and a lot of achievements have been made, there are not many fine anatomical examples of deep buried ancient rivers, which is a situation that still needs to be improved. The main difficulties in the research of deep, ancient meandering rivers are the acquisition of data and the incompleteness of structure, which are both difficulties and challenges. Under the guidance of the modern meandering river fan sedimentary model and migration law, we established the scheme of meandering river geomorphology and structure. In the process of river migration, a variety of single migration models (expansion, contraction, rotation, and translation) and composite migration models can be distinguished. By analyzing the distribution structure characteristics of channel configuration elements in different migration modes, the coupled model of the meandering channel plane and profile structure is established by systematically constructing plane and profile combined with a three-dimensional channel configuration model. Based on the data of the dense well, taking the Shan 11 sublayer in the Su-x block of the Sulige gas field as an example, the reservoir structure of the deep, ancient meandering channel is dissected. In order to reconstruct the evolution of the deep, ancient channel and make it more consistent with the real laws of river migration and evolution, the morphological migration law of the modern river is applied to the ancient sedimentation, and the migration configuration is dissected by combining with the plane-profile structure coupled model. It further reveals the heterogeneity, the vertical distribution and the superposition form of the channel sand, and enriches the theory of the reservoir configuration of underground fluvial facies, all of which are significant for oil and gas exploration and development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environment)

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16 pages, 11745 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Channel Migration of the Meandering River Fan: A Case Study of the Okavango Delta

by Xue Yan, Jinliang Zhang, Yang Li and Long Sun

Water 2021, 13(23), 3319; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13233319 - 23 Nov 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3669

Abstract

Okavango delta is a typical distributive fluvial system, which is composed of a series of sand island-river-swamp networks. River migration in the Okavango delta is analyzed by using satellite images from Google Earth and Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF). Four configuration characterization parameters are selected to depict and measure the meandering river. These four parameters are sinuosity index (S), curvature (C), the difference of along-current deflection angle (Δθ) and expansion coefficient (Km). In the fan, the channel migration is mainly asymmetric. According to geomorphic elements and associated features, Okavango Delta can be subdivided into three zones: axial zone, median zone and distal zone. Under the influence of slope, climate and vegetation, different migration modes are developed in different zones. As the river moves downstream, the sinuosity index of the river on the Okavango Delta decreases downstream. Based on the characteristics of different zones, the sedimentary facies model of a single source distributive fluvial system of a meandering river is proposed. The models of channel migration and sedimentary facies have wide application. This research will not only provide a basis for the prediction of future river channels but will also provide important theoretical guidance for the study of the sedimentary morphology of underground reservoirs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environment)

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Review

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21 pages, 4225 KiB

Open AccessReview

Global Trends and Prospects of Nepheloid Layers: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Review

by Tian Chen, Fei Liu, Zhenghui Li, Hongxian Shan, Hanlu Liu, Yongzheng Quan, Zhenhua Zhou, Zhan Tan and Yonggang Jia

Water 2023, 15(6), 1067; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15061067 - 10 Mar 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2175

Abstract

Nepheloid layers are widely distributed in the marine environment, and their formation and evolution pose many challenges to the current understanding of ocean dynamics and marine sedimentology. In sediment transport processes, nepheloid layers significantly contribute to the exchange of sediment between the continental shelf and the slope. In this paper, we summarize the global research trends on nepheloid layers. In total, 689 publications from 1990 to 2022 were collected from the Web of Science and analyzed using bibliographic software, including Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and CorText. Based on these publications, past and present popular research on nepheloid layers is examined and evaluated. The trends in nepheloid layer research are summarized by analyzing keywords, article references, countries, institutions, and authors. Finally, prospects and several key questions related to nepheloid layers are concluded, which can potentially guide future studies. The bibliographic analysis can provide new insights into the history of nepheloid layers. The results also provide valuable information for other researchers and programs investigating geological, geophysical, and biogeochemical processes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environment)

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20 pages, 3412 KiB

Open AccessReview

Effects of Migration and Diffusion of Suspended Sediments on the Seabed Environment during Exploitation of Deep-Sea Polymetallic Nodules

by Zhihan Fan, Yonggang Jia, Fengyou Chu, Xianming Zhu, Na Zhu, Bowen Li and Yongzheng Quan

Water 2022, 14(13), 2073; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14132073 - 29 Jun 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3527

Abstract

With the increase in demand for metal resources, research on deep-sea polymetallic nodule mining has been reinvigorated, but the problem of its environmental impact cannot be ignored. No matter what method is used for mining, it will disturb the surface sediments of the seabed, thereby increasing the concentration of suspended solid particles and metal ions in the water body, changing the properties of the near-bottom water body and sediments, and affecting biological activity and the living environment. Focusing on the ecological and environmental impacts of deep-sea polymetallic nodule mining, taking as our main subject of focus the dynamic changes in sediments, we investigated the environmental impacts of nodule mining and their relationships with each other. On this basis, certain understandings are summarized relating to the ecological and environmental impacts of deep-sea polymetallic nodule mining, based on changes in the engineering geological properties of sediment, and solutions for current research problems are proposed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environment)

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17 pages, 4495 KiB

Open AccessReview

Formation Mechanisms and Characteristics of the Marine Nepheloid Layer: A Review

by Zhuangcai Tian, Yang Liu, Xiaojiang Zhang, Yan Zhang and Mingwei Zhang

Water 2022, 14(5), 678; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14050678 - 22 Feb 2022

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4017

Abstract

Marine nepheloid layer is widely distributed in the oceans and marginal seas. The concentration of suspended particles in the nepheloid layer is significantly higher than that of the adjacent layers. Marine nepheloid layers include the surface nepheloid layer (SNL), intermediate nepheloid layer (INL), and bottom nepheloid layer (BNL). As a transport pathway for the particulate matter in the oceans, nepheloid layer is important to the carbon cycle and the source–sink system at the continental margin. This paper focused on the characteristics of the marine nepheloid layer and the mechanism of internal solitary waves that form INL and BNL, providing a reference for further research on the marine ecological environment dynamic process and source–sink system. BNL is formed by suspended seabed sediments with strong currents near the bottom, but the fate of BNL remains unknown. Marine nepheloid layer significantly affects the transportation of materials within the ocean. The transport of sediments by ISWs dramatically affects the formation of deep seabed sedimentary landform. However, the formation process and the transport contribution of INL and BNL are still unclear. The systematic and long-term research on the marine nepheloid layer in the world oceans is still limited. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Environment)

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