The impact of coastal reclamation on tidal and storm surge level in Sanmen Bay, China

In recent years, fast economic development demands for more land use and thus many reclamation projects are initiated around the Sanmen Bay, Zhejiang, SE China in the East China Sea, for which tidal and storm surge levels are reassessed. A two-dimensional numerical model based on an advanced circulation model (ADCIRC) was applied to evaluate the impact of reclamation projects on tidal and storm surge levels in the bay. The results show that the shoreline relocation and topographic change had opposite effects on tidal heights. Shoreline relocation decreased the tidal amplitude, while siltation caused topographic change and increased the amplitude. Such variations of the amplitude were significant in the top areas of Sanmen Bay. Three types of typhoon paths were selected for a case study to investigate the impacts of shoreline relocation and topographic change on storm surge level. Results show that the maximum increase in storm surge level due to shoreline relocation was less than 0.06 m. The rise of peak surge level due to the change of topography was significant and the peak surge level rose when siltation increased. The maximum surge level rise occurred in the path of northwest landing typhoons, which exceeded 0.24 m at the top of the bay. The rise in peak surge level can potentially lead to severe damages and losses in Sanmen Bay and more attention needs to be paid to this problem of shoreline change in the future.