Morphodynamic Process of Dachan Bay in Pearl River Estuary Affected by Human Activities

Abstract:

The surrounding area of the Dachan Bay in the Pearl River Estuary has one of the highest economic development rates of China. Rapid industrialization and urbanization has resulted in extensive changes in land use, including the tidal flat reclamation and harbor construction. For the analysis of the morphological changes of the Dachan Bay, multi-temporal Landsat images have been digitized by using the integrated RS and GIS technique, and the digital elevation modes in different years were set up in combination with topographical and nautical data. From the change analysis, it can be concluded that the sea area of the Dachan Bay decreases to 6.0 km², by 87.6% between 1907a and 2011a due to the large-scale tidal flat reclamation, and the maximum downcutting depth of the seabed in the entrance area is over 10m mainly caused by extensive harbor construction. Based on the research of the morphological change in recent decades, it is suggested that the human activities have become one of the major factors affecting the morphological processes of the Dachan Bay.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volumes 638-640)
• Pages: 1257-1260
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.638-640.1257
• Online since: September 2014
• Authors: Rong Yao Ji*, Qun Xu, Si Ping Mo
• Keywords: Digital Elevation Model, Harbor Construction, Morphological Change, Remote Sensing, Tidal Flat Reclamation

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