Sediment dispersal and accumulation off the present Huanghe (Yellow River) delta as impacted by the Water-Sediment Regulation Scheme

Abstract

Surface sediment samples from 15 stations around the present Huanghe (Yellow River) river mouth were collected before, during and after the Water-Sediment Regulation Scheme (WSRS) in 2010 for grain size analysis. Hydrographic surveys conducted simultaneously at stations along three transects off the river mouth during the WSRS in 2013 were used to investigate the dispersal and accumulation of the Huanghe sediment off the present Huanghe subaqueous delta. During the WSRS period, the diluted water from the river covered all over the study area within the surface layer, whereas high-concentrated sediment was found in the bottom layers and to be limited in nearshore area shallower than 12m, indicating that the buoyant river plume was the main sediment dispersal pattern during the WSRS. At the early stage of the WSRS when large amount of clear water was released from the Xiaolangdi Reservoir, sediment eroded from the downstream riverbed in the lower reaches increased the median grain size of surface sediment at the river mouth. During the second stage when water discharge was reduced but sediment discharge was dramatically increased, the fine-grained sediment derived from the Xiaolangdi Reservoir mixed with the previously deposited coarser surface sediment, leading to the decreasing median grain size of surface sediment that approached to be poorly sorted. After the physical sorting from winter storms, the surface sediment was redistributed and varied regularly with water depth. As the median grain size of suspended sediment discharge to the sea has been significantly increased due to the WSRS, the river-delivered sediment mostly accumulated in the nearshore area, which effectively extended the subaerial delta and steepened the subaqueous slope off the present river mouth.