Effect of water-sediment regulation and its impact on coastline and suspended sediment concentration in Yellow River Estuary

Implementation of the water-sediment regulation (WSR) scheme, mainly focused on solving the sedimentation problems of reservoirs and the lower reaches of the Yellow River, has inevitably influenced the sediment distribution and coastal morphology of the Yellow River Estuary. Using coastline delineation and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) retrieval methods, this study investigated water and sediment changes, identified detailed inter-annual and intra-annual variations of the coastline and SSC in the normal period (NP: 1986–2001, before and after the flood season) and WSR period (WSRP: 2002–2013, before and after WSR). The results indicate that (1) the sedimentation in the low reaches of the Yellow River turned into erosion from 2002 onward; (2) the inter-annual coastline changes could be divided into an accretion stage (1986–1996), a slow erosion stage (1996–2002), and a slow accretion stage (2002–2013); (3) an intra-annual coastline extension occurred in the river mouth in most years of the WSRP; and (4) the mean intra-annual accretion area was 0.789 km2 in the NP and 4.73 km2 in the WSRP, and the mean SSC increased from 238 mg/L to 293 mg/L in the NP and from 192 mg/L to 264 mg/L in the WSRP