Geomorphic evolution of the Qingshuigou channel of the Yellow River Delta in response to changing water and sediment regimes and human interventions
2020
Delta channels are important landforms at the interface of sediment transfer from
terrestrial to oceanic realms and affect large, and often vulnerable, human populations.
Understanding these dynamics is pressing because delta processes are sensitive to
climate change and human activity via adjustments in, for example, mean sea level,
and water and sediment regime. Data collected over a 40-year period along a 110km
distributary channel of the Yellow River Delta offers an ideal opportunity to investigate
morphological responses to changing water and sediment regimes and intensive
human activity. Complementary data from the delta front provide an opportunity to
explore the interaction between delta channel geomorphology and delta-front erosionaccretion patterns. Cross-section dimensions and shape, longitudinal gradation and a
sediment budget are used to quantify spatial and temporal morphological change
along the Qingshuigou channel. Distinctive periods of channel change are identified,
and analysis provides a detailed understanding of the temporal and spatial
adjustments of the channel to specific human interventions, including two artificial
channel diversions and changes in water and sediment supply driven by river
management, and downstream delta-front development. Adjustments to the
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diversions included a short-lived period of erosion upstream and significant erosion in
the newly activated channel, which progressed downstream. Channel geomorphology
widened and deepened during periods when management increased water yield and
decreased sediment supply, and narrowed and shallowed during periods when
management reduced water yield and the sediment load. Changes along the channel
are driven by both upstream and downstream forcing. Finally, there is some evidence
that changing delta-front erosion-accretion patterns played an important role to the
geomorphic evolution of the deltaic channel; an area that requires further investigation.
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