A continuing 30-year decline in water quality of Jiaojiang Estuary, China

A quantitative description of a long-term series of aquatic environmental factors and their spatial distributions was generated using measured data from the Jiaojiang Estuary from 1982 to 2011. The aquatic environmental factors included suspended matter, salinity, and nutrients. Based on these factors, the aquatic ecosystem health in the Jiaojiang Estuary over the last 30 years was analyzed. The results indicated that the suspended matter concentration in the estuary was mainly affected by the amounts of suspended sediment and solid waste, with the value fluctuating over a long period, and the range of high concentration expanded continually; the salinity was mainly affected by precipitation and surface water resources, showing an overall decreasing trend, and the region with low salinity moved seaward and toward the reclamation areas; and the nutritional status, mainly affected by discharge of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage, was satisfactory in the 1980s and 1990s, but the status became severe in recent years. Reclamation had a great influence on these three factors： high reclamation strength led to a significant increase in the suspended matter concentration and a deterioration of the nutritional status, and the reclamation rate was negatively related with the salinity in the estuary. There was a significant positive correlation between the health status of the aquatic ecosystem and salinity, with a correlation coefficient of 0.93. The correlation coefficient between the health status and nutritional status was -0.71, while the correlation between the suspended matter concentration and health status was not as significant as that of the other two factors. The dynamics of the aquatic environment could be divided into four stages： sustainable health from the 1980s to the 1990s, continued deterioration from 2000 to 2003, improvement from 2004 to 2005, and secondary deterioration from 2006 to 2011. The Jiaojiang Estuary is faced with imminent environmental pressure at present.

Effects of cluster land reclamation projects on storm surge inJiaojiang Estuary,China

Variations in coastline geometry caused by coastal engineering affect tides, storm surges, and storm tides. Three cluster land reclamation projects have been planned for construction in the Jiaojiang Estuary during the period from 2011 to 2023. They will cause significant changes in coastline geometry. In this study, a surge-tide coupled model was established based on a three-dimensional finite-volume coastal ocean model （FVCOM）. A series of numerical experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of variations in coastline geometry on tides, storm surges, and storm tides. This model was calibrated using data observed at the Haimen and Ruian gauge stations and then used to reproduce the tides, storm surges, and storm tides in the Jiaojiang Estuary caused by Typhoon Winnie in 1997. Results show that the high tide level, peak storm surge, and high storm tide level at the Haimen Gauge Station increased along with the completion of reclamation projects, and the maximum increments caused by the third project were 0.13 m, 0.50 m, and 0.43 m, respectively. The envelopes with maximum storm tide levels of 7.0 m and 8.0 m inside the river mouth appeared to move seaward, with the latter shifting 1.8 km, 3.3 km, and 4.4 km due to the first project, second project, and third project, respectively. The results achieved in this study contribute to reducing the effects of, and preventing storm disasters after the land reclamation in the Jiaojiang Estuary.

Impacts of channel dredging on hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics in the main channels of the Jiaojiang River Estuary in China

Channel dredging in estuaries increases water depth and subsequently impacts sediment dynamics and morphology. The Jiaojiang River Estuary is dredged frequently owing to heavy shipping demands. In this study,the effects of different dredging schemes on siltation were assessed through numerical modeling. The sediment model of the Jiaojiang River Estuary utilized an optimized bottom boundary layer model that considered the bed sediment grain size and fluid mud, and this model was calibrated using field data. Result reveal that channel dredging modifies the flow velocity inside and around the channel by changing the bathymetry;subsequently, this affects the residual current, bed stress, suspended sediment concentration, and sediment fluxes. Increasing the dredging depth and width increases the net sediment fluxes into the channel and dredging depth has a greater influence on the channel siltation thickness. When the dredging depth is 8.4 m or11.4 m, the average siltation thickness of the channel is 0.07 m or 0.15 m per mouth respectively. The parallel movement of the channel has small effects on the siltation volume during the simulation period. The sediment deposits in the channel primarily originates from the tidal flats, through bottom sediment fluxes. Vertical net circulation has a dominant impact on siltation because the difference of horizontal current of each layer on the longitudinal section of the channel increases, which intensifies the lateral sediment transport between the shoal and channel. The influence of vertical frictional dissipation on the lateral circulation at the feature points accounts for more than 50% before dredging, while the non-linear advective term is dominant after dredging. Tidal pumping mainly affects the longitudinal sediment fluxes in the channel. These results can be used for channel management and planning for similar estuaries worldwide.