Using a 2DH idealized local morphodynamic model for a tidal channel, it is demonstrated that estuarine bars with typical length scales on the order of the tidal excursion length can develop as the result of a positive feedback between water motion, sediment transport and the sandy bottom. The water motion is modelled by the depth-averaged shallow water equations and driven by an externally prescribed M 2 tide. Sediment is mainly transported as suspended load due to advective processes. Convergences and divergences of the tidally averaged sediment fluxes result in the evolution of the bed. It is shown that the combined effect of bottom friction and advective processes can trigger instabilities that lead to the formation of bottom patterns. Bed slope effects are required in order to prevent infinite braiding of these features. With bed slope effects, bars with longitudinal length scales of the order of the tidal excursion length are most likely to become unstable. This result is found to be independent of the ratio of the width to the tidal excursion length as well as the adopted formulation of the bed shear stress. In the case that the width is much smaller than the tidal excursion length and non-linear bottom friction is used, there is good qualitative agreement with results from 3D models reported in literature which were applied to the same parameter regime. Qualitatively, the results are recovered when bottom friction is linearized. Quantitatively, only small modifications occur: the critical friction parameter is decreased and the longitudinal length scale of the most unstable bed form increases. r

Abstract. The iFlow modelling framework is a width-averaged model for the systematic analysis of the water motion and sediment transport processes in estuaries and tidal rivers. The distinctive solution method, a mathematical perturbation method, used in the model allows for identification of the effect of individual physical processes on the water motion and sediment transport and study of the sensitivity of these processes to model parameters. This distinction between processes provides a unique tool for interpreting and explaining hydrodynamic interactions and sediment trapping. iFlow also includes a large number of options to configure the model geometry and multiple choices of turbulence and salinity models. Additionally, the model contains auxiliary components, including one that facilitates easy and fast sensitivity studies. iFlow has a modular structure, which makes it easy to include, exclude or change individual model components, called modules. Depending on the required functionality for the application at hand, modules can be selected to construct anything from very simple quasi-linear models to rather complex models involving multiple non-linear interactions. This way, the model complexity can be adjusted to the application. Once the modules containing the required functionality are selected, the underlying model structure automatically ensures modules are called in the correct order. The model inserts iteration loops over groups of modules that are mutually dependent. iFlow also ensures a smooth coupling of modules using analytical and numerical solution methods. This way the model combines the speed and accuracy of analytical solutions with the versatility of numerical solution methods. In this paper we present the modular structure, solution method and two examples of the use of iFlow. In the examples we present two case studies, of the Yangtze and Scheldt rivers, demonstrating how iFlow facilitates the analysis of model results, the understanding of the underlying physics and the testing of parameter sensitivity. A comparison of the model results to measurements shows a good qualitative agreement. iFlow is written in Python and is available as open source code under the LGPL license.

Understanding salt dynamics is important to adequately model salt intrusion, baroclinic forcing, and sediment transport. In this paper, the importance of the residual salt transport due to tidal advection in well-mixed tidal estuaries is studied. The water motion is resolved in a consistent way with a width-averaged analytical model, coupled to an advection–diffusion equation describing the salt dynamics. The residual salt balance obtained from the coupled model shows that the seaward salt transport driven by river discharge is balanced by the landward salt transport due to tidal advection and horizontal diffusion. It is found that the tidal advection behaves as a diffusion process, and this contribution is named tidal advective diffusion. The horizontal diffusion parameterizes processes not explicitly resolved in the model and is called the prescribed diffusion. The tidal advective diffusion results from the correlation between the tidal velocity and salinity and can be explicitly calculated with the dominant semidiurnal water motion. The sensitivity analysis shows that tidal advective diffusivity increases with increasing bed roughness and decreasing vertical eddy viscosity. Furthermore, tidal advective diffusivity reaches its maximum for moderate water depth and moderate convergence length. The relative importance of tidal advective diffusion is investigated using the residual salt balance, with the prescribed diffusion coefficient obtained from the measured salinity field. The tidal advective diffusion dominates the residual salt transport in the Scheldt estuary, and other processes significantly contribute to the residual salt transport in the Delaware estuary and the Columbia estuary.

Many estuaries are strongly modified by human interventions, including substantive channel deepening. In the Ems River Estuary (Germany and Netherlands), channel deepening between the 1960s and early 2000s coincided with an increase in the maximum near‐bed suspended sediment concentration from moderate (∼1 kg/m3) to high (>10 kg/m3). In this study the observed transition in the suspended sediment concentration in the Ems is qualitatively reproduced by using an idealized width‐averaged iFlow model. The model is used to reproduce observations from 1965 and 2005 by only changing the channel depth between the years. Model results show an increase in sediment concentrations from approximately 1–2 kg/m3 to 20–30 kg/m3 near the bed between 1965 and 2005 if the river discharge is below 70 m3/s, which holds approximately 60% of the time. Thereby, this study for the first time provides strong evidence for earlier published hypotheses that channel deepening was the main driver of the increased sediment concentrations in the Ems. The results are explained using two aspects: sediment transport (longitudinal processes) and local resuspension (vertical processes). The magnitude of the sediment import increased, because a combination of channel deepening and sediment‐induced damping of turbulence increased the M2–M4 tidal asymmetry. This effect is particularly strong, because the M4 tide evolved to a state close to resonance. All imported sediment is kept in suspension when it is assumed that resuspension is sufficiently efficient, which depends on the value of the erosion parameter used and inclusion of hindered settling in the model.