Morphodynamic Response of Estuaries to Climate Change

Abstract

Estuaries are one of the most important aspects of coastal systems globally. They are often hubs for human civilisation due to the socioeconomic advantages they offer. As they are highly vulnerable to natural forces, including tides, waves, surges and river discharges, it is essential to study the relationship between estuarine morphologies and these natural variables, which is crucial in order to assess estuarine evolution. III Declaration and StatementsI, Yunzhu Yin, declare that this thesis titled, 'Morphodynamic responses of estuaries to climate change' and the work presented in it are my own, I confirmed that This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Singed……………………………………………..(Yunzhu Yin)Date…………………………………………….. This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated.Where correction services have been used, the extent and nature of the correction is clearly marked in a footnote(s).Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended.

Numerical modelling of hydrodynamic and morphodynamic response of a meso-tidal estuary inlet to the impacts of global climate variabilities

“…Based on two time-slice experiments,1979-2009 providing the present wave climate and 2075-2099 providing the future wave climate. It has been found that the average wave conditions around Suffolk area will not change significantly at the end of this century (Bennett et al, 2016;Yin, 2018) (Table 3). A comparison of current and future average wave conditions revealed that the average Hs decreased by 0.09% only in future while the peak wave period (Tp) decreased by 0.57%: both of which are insignificant.…”

A Computational Investigation of Storm Impacts on Estuary Morphodynamics

“…The differences can be attributed to lack of sediment supply (not included in the model but exist in real) to the domain from updrift areas of the inlet [27]. The detailed model set up and extensive model validations can be found in [27,48]. It should be noted that the pre-and post-storm estuary bathymetries are not available for morphodynamic model validations on storm impacts.…”