Hydrology, sediment circulation and long-term morphological changes in highly urbanized Shenzhen River estuary, China: A combined field experimental and modeling approach

- Hydrographic and bathymetry surveys in an urbanized estuary are reported.
- A stable low-SSC zone is discovered in the estuary.
- The sediment circulation pattern in the Shenzhen estuary is discussed.
- Long-term morphological processes are numerically simulated.
- Impacts of driving forces on morphological processes are analyzed.

SummaryThe Shenzhen River estuary is a small estuary in highly urbanized regions between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, China. An increasing amount of sediment has been observed to accumulate in the estuary, imposing a severe impact on the ecological environment. In this study we utilized a series of hydrographic and bathymetry surveys to study the hydrology, sediment transport and morphological processes in the estuary. Flow and sediment circulation patterns in different seasons were inferred using current velocity, salinity and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) time series collected in the hydrographic surveys in conjunction with fathometer profiles in bathymetry surveys. Historical time series at two stations were also analyzed by Mann-Kendall test for possible trends of the driving forces for estuarine morphological processes. The two-dimensional depth-averaged DELFT numerical model was employed to simulate the flow, salinity and SSC fields during the synchronous surveys and to predict the long-term morphological processes in the estuary. A bimodal SSC distribution was observed with two high-SSC zones separated by a low-SSC zone near the central bay, which cannot be explained by the conventional nongravitational transport theory of Postma (1967). It is hypothesized that sediment circulation in the estuary can be separated into two different systems: the “tidal zone” is under the influence of marine sediment from the Pearl River estuary, whereas the “fluvial zone” is mainly affected by terrestrial sediment from the river. Sediment mass exchange between the two systems is limited due to the presence of the low-SSC zone, the location of which could vary with the relative strengths of river flow and tides. The trend analysis of historical time series shows that the river discharge and the mean sea level are increasing and the flood tide range and the ebb tide range are decreasing. These trends are closely related to the intense human activities in the urbanization of Shenzhen. The long-term simulations show depositional trends for the inner bay and the coastline of the outer bay, which could be further aggravated by the detected trends of the driving forces.