EVOLUTION OF ACTIVE YELLOW RIVER (HUANGHE) DELTA UNDER THE WATER AND SEDIMENT REGULATION SCHEME (WSRS)

Based on the datasets collected from Landsat images and the water and sediment data from the Lijin station in the period of 1996 to 2013, the evolution of the active Yellow River delta under the influence of the Water and Sediment Regulation Scheme (WSRS) are investigated. The result indicates that, after the WSRS, the subaerial delta accreted slowly due to the sediment accumulation in the nearshore area after the dam-regulation. Along with the continuous implementations of WSRS, however, the river bed sediments in the lower reaches are increasingly coarser than ever, resulting in the continuous increase in the critical energy for resuspension of the riverbed sediment. Thus the lower channel could no longer supply coarser sediment to the sea; therefore we speculate the critical sediment load for maintainance of the present delta lobe should increase in the future.