HPCCprojects:Understanding sediment delivery to deltas under environmental changes using WBMsed and HydroTrend
Understanding sediment delivery to deltas under environmental changes using WBMsed and HydroTrend
Project description
This project is focused on increasing understanding of how environmental changes affect sediment flux to the world's more vulnerable deltas. Relative sea-level change is affected by sediment deposition (aggradation) along with subsidence, isostatic, and eustatic changes. This means that the sustainability of delta environments relies in part on the rates of aggradation which in turn are affected by sediment delivery from catchments feeding deltas.
Objectives
Establish future environmental changes which will affect sediment delivery to deltas and the potential ranges of said changes.
Calibrate existing sediment flux models, such as HydroTrend or WBMsed, for a selection of major vulnerable deltas using historical reference periods.
Project current and future sediment delivery to deltas to investigate delta sustainability and the relative effects of pressures on sediment delivery.
Time-line
2013-2016
Models in use
Currently using HydroTrend, also looking to investigate WBMsed for use in the project.
Results
The results of this research will be able to inform the identification of a range of factors affecting delta elevation change relative to sea level. Further research will focus on using these data to refine definitions of delta vulnerability and identifying proxies for environmental changes which affect delta aggradation, such as land use change and channel engineering.
Users
Funding
University of Southampton
Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI)
