Sandbars are of vital ecological and environmental significance, which however, have been intensively influenced by human activities. Morphodynamic processes of sandbars along the Yichang-Chenglingji Reach of the Changjiang River, the channel immediately downstream of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD), are assessed based on remote sensing images between 2000 and 2016. It can be found that the entire area of sandbars reduces drastically by 19.23% from 149.04 km 2 in 2003 to 120.38 km 2 in 2016, accompanied with an increase in water surface width. Owing to differences in sediment grain size and anti-erosion capacity, sandbar area in the upstream sandy gravel reach (Yichang-Dabujie) and downstream sandy reach (Dabujie-Chenglingji) respectively decreases by 45.94% (from 20.79 km 2 to 11.24 km 2) and 14.93% (from 128.30 km 2 to 109.14 km 2). Furtherly, morphological evolutions of sandbars are affected by channel type: in straight-microbend channel, mid-channel sandbars exhibit downstream moving while maintaining the basic profile; in meandering channel, point sandbars show erosion and deposition in convex and concave bank respectively, with mid-channel sandbars distributing sporadically; in bending-branching channel, point sandbars experience erosion and move downstream while mid-channel sandbars show erosion in the head part along with retreating outline. We document that the primary mechanism of sandbars shrinkages along the Yichang-Chenglingji Reach can be attributed to TGD induced suspended sediment concentration decreasing and increasing in unsaturation of sediment carrying capacity. Additionally, channel type can affect the morphological evolution of sandbars. Along the Yichang-Chenglingji Reach, sandbars in straight-microbend channel are more affected by water flow than that in bending-branching channel.

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The drastic decline in sediment discharge experienced by large rivers in recent years might trigger erosion thus increasing the vulnerability of their extensive deltas. However, scarce information is available on the erosion patterns in mega-deltas and associated physical drivers. Here a series of bathymetries in the South Passage, Changjiang Delta, were analyzed to identify morphodynamic variations during high riverine flow and tropical cyclones (TCs). Results indicate that high river flow during flood season triggers large-scale net erosion along the inner estuary, generating elongated erosion-deposition patches. Erosion magnitude gradually weakens moving seaward with few localized bottom variations in the offshore area. TCs transport sediment landward and are accompanied by an overall weak erosion, with a less organized spatial pattern of erosion-deposition. TCs can therefore significantly alleviate erosion, reducing the sediment loss induced by riverine flows by over 50%. These results highlight the role of TCs on the sediment dynamics of mega-deltas. Plain Language Summary In recent years, climate change and reduced riverine sediment inputs have significantly affected the morphology of large deltas. However, it is unknown whether typhoons cause erosion or deposition in the submerged part of a delta, due to challenge in capturing infrequent events. Here we study the impact of high river flow and typhoons on the South Passage, Changjiang Delta. Results show that high riverine flows can cause large-scale erosion. Typhoons reduce fluvial erosion by transporting offshore sediments in the delta. The relative accretion caused by a typhoon is more than half the net erosion induced by riverine floods. This research sheds light on the sediment budget of large deltas and inform policy measures that can mitigate the effect of increasing anthropogenic pressure, extreme events, and sea level rise on delta morphology.

Lakes, as key recorders of sedimentation regime variations, have undergone dramatic erosion/deposition worldwide in response to global warming and increasing anthropogenic interference. Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, has not escaped these variations. Herein, we show that the sedimentation in Poyang Lake has likely undergone a unique phase shift from sediment sink (annually storing 421 × 104 t) during 1960–1999 to sediment source (yearly losing 782 × 104 t) during 2000–2012, with respect to the Changjiang (Yangtze) River. In comparison with sedimentation during 1960–1999, Poyang Lake sedimentation during the period 2000–2012 is characterized by no deposition during the flood season and enhanced erosion during the dry season. Furthermore, Poyang Lake's largest delta, the Ganjiang Delta, prograded at a rate of 32.7 m/a from 1983 to 1996, which increased to 52.8 m/a from 1996 to 2005 but dropped significantly to 1.7 m/a from 2005 to 2015. A sediment core collected in the shallow‐water shoal of the central lake indicates a stable increase in sedimentation flux from 1960 to 2002, with a mean value of 0.27 g/(cm2·a), followed by a decline in sedimentation flux after 2002. Our findings show that the tributary sediment input from the lake catchment dominated the sedimentation of Poyang Lake prior to 2000, when it was significantly larger than the sediment output to the Changjiang River. However, thereafter, the contribution of tributary sediment to the output dropped by 50%, and the rest has been provided by the lake itself. Namely, channels along Poyang Lake's waterway became the additional source of the lake's sediment output in the 2000s.

Knowledge of river engineering impacts on water discharge is significant to flow guidelines and sustainable water resource managements for balancing human consumption and the natural environment. In this study, based on the collected multi-decadal discharge data at Yichang, Hankou, and Datong stations, we determined that in October, Three Gorges Dam contributed 34.4%, 24.5%, and 18.7% to the discharge decrease in the upper, middle, and lower reach, respectively, while Gezhouba Dam contributed 14.5%, 10.7%, and 10%. Danjiangkou Reservoir caused the discharge ratio of Hanjiang to Changjiang to decline from 7.2% during 1954–1973 to 6.3% during 1973–2014. Owing to growing water withdrawal and consumption, we suggest that the distribution of water diversion and consumption should be regulated to prevent the probable occurrence of the severe issue of salt water intrusion in the Changjiang Estuary in 2028.

Sediments in deltaic tidal flats regulate physical and chemical processes. Grain-size distribution plays an important role in determining sediment dynamics and substrate properties. However, it is challenging to quantify large-scale depositional environments in intertidal flats, due to timeconsuming grain-size analyses and sparse sedimentary information extracted from scattered sediment samples. In this study, a novel terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) based method was developed to characterize the substrate of an intertidal flat. Surface sediment samples in the Nanhui flats in the Yangtze Delta, China, and the corresponding waveform amplitudes of TLS echoes at fixed sampling sites were collected for a total of 22 months. A negative logarithmic relationship was found between the sediment sand fraction, average grain size, D 50 , and corrected waveform amplitude of TLS echo in different hydro-meteorological conditions. The mean of average grain size of five sediment sampling sites along a transect was 58.78 μm when measured by traditional grain-size analysis, and 49.48 μm when calculated with the proposed logarithmic equation. The mean error at each site was up to 21.77%. The mean error for the sand and silt fraction at each location was as high as 27.28% and 21.75%, respectively. The spatial distribution pattern of TLSbased average grain size in the entire study area was consistent with the measured pattern with a Root Mean Square Error of 13.83 μm. These errors could be caused by the accuracy of the TLS waveform amplitude correction and by limits of the method in recognizing different substrates. The effects produced by the presence of microphytobenthos (for example, cyanobacterial mats or diatom biofilms) or bedforms have not been investigated and may have affected the results. The TLS-based grain-size measurements can rapidly and effectively discriminate sediment characteristics, thus avoiding traditional time-consuming measurements. It is expected that the TLS-based method proposed here will have wide applications in shoreline studies, especially in inaccessible tidal flats.