Variation, Regulation and Control of Flow and Sediment in the Yellow River Estuary I: Mechanism of Flow_Sediment Transport and Evolution

The Yellow River estuary is famous for its less runoff and high sediment supply, frequent shift of flow paths, accumulative deposition, and continuous growing of wetland. By resorting to field data analyses, theoretical study and numerical simulation, a comprehensive investigation on the mechanism of flow_sediment movement and evolution of the Yellow River mouth is conducted. The main interested issues include: tidal characteristics, sediment_carrying capacity by tidal current, convection and diffusion of estuarine sediment, estuary extension by deposition, decrease of shoreline by erosion back, land growing, formation and evolution of estuarine sandbar, shift of waterways and their effect on the fluvial processes of the lower reach, formation and development of estuarine density flow, and the growing of estuarine wetland. Also, the knowledge to the Yellow River estuary is enriched and intensified through the comparative study on other main estuaries over the world. Presented results provide a scientific guideline for the comprehensive regulation of a featured estuary, the Yellow River mouth.