Salt intrusion poses a global threat to estuaries and deltas, exacerbated by climate change, drought, and sea level rise. This observational study investigates the impact of river discharge, wind, and tidal variations on salt intrusion in a branching river delta during drought. The complexity and spatial extent of deltas make comprehensive measurements challenging and rare. In this paper, we present a 17-week data set of a historic drought in the Rhine-Meuse Delta, capturing dynamics in a multiple-channel system in a wide range of conditions. Key characteristics of this low-lying delta are its branching channel network and complicated, human-controlled discharge. Despite the system's complexity, we found that the subtidal salt intrusion length, defined by the 2 PSU isohaline (Formula presented.), follows a power law relationship with Rhine River discharge (Formula presented.). Subtidal water level variations contribute to short-term variations in intrusion length, shifting the limit of salt intrusion upstream and downstream with a distance similar to the tidal excursion length. This can be attributed to the up-estuary transport of seawater, caused by the estuary adjusting to variations in water levels at its mouth. However, spring-neap variation in the tidal range does not alter the subtidal salt intrusion length. Side branches exhibit distinct dynamics from the main river, and their most important control is the downstream salinity. We show that treating the side branches separately is crucial to incorporate the highly variable downstream boundary condition, and may apply in other deltas or complex estuaries.

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Rising coastal flood risk and recent disasters are driving interest in the construction of gated storm surge barriers worldwide, with current studies recommending barriers for at least 11 estuaries in the United States alone. Surge barriers partially block estuary-ocean exchange with infrastructure across an estuary or its inlet and include gated areas that are closed only during flood events. They can alter the stratification and salt intrusion, change sedimentary systems, and curtail animal migration and ecosystem connectivity, with impacts growing larger with increasing gate closures. Existing barriers are being used with increasing frequency due to sea level rise. New barrier proposals typically come with maximum closure frequency recommendations, yet the future adherence to them is uncertain. Given that the broader environmental effects and coupled-human dynamics of surge barriers are not well-understood, we present an interdisciplinary research agenda for this increasingly prevalent modification to our coastal zone.

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In field observations from a sinuous estuary, the drag coefficient (Formula presented.) based on the momentum balance was in the range of (Formula presented.), much greater than expected from bottom friction alone. (Formula presented.) also varied at tidal and seasonal timescales. (Formula presented.) was greater during flood tides than ebbs, most notably during spring tides. The ebb tide (Formula presented.) was negatively correlated with river discharge, while the flood tide (Formula presented.) showed no dependence on discharge. The large values of (Formula presented.) are explained by form drag from flow separation at sharp channel bends. Greater water depths during flood tides corresponded with increased values of (Formula presented.), consistent with the expected depth dependence for flow separation, as flow separation becomes stronger in deeper water. Additionally, the strength of the adverse pressure gradient downstream of the bend apex, which is indicative of flow separation, correlated with (Formula presented.) during flood tides. While (Formula presented.) generally increased with water depth, (Formula presented.) decreased for the highest water levels that corresponded with overbank flow. The decrease in (Formula presented.) may be due to the inhibition of flow separation with flow over the vegetated marsh. The dependence of (Formula presented.) during ebbs on discharge corresponds with the inhibition of flow separation by a favoring baroclinic pressure gradient that is locally generated at the bend apex due to curvature-induced secondary circulation. This effect increases with stratification, which increases with discharge. Additional factors may contribute to the high drag, including secondary circulation, multiple scales of bedforms, and shallow shoals, but the observations suggest that flow separation is the primary source.@en

Estuarine turbidity maxima (ETMs) are generated by a large suite of hydrodynamic and sediment dynamic processes, leading to longitudinal convergence of cross-sectionally integrated and tidally averaged transport of cohesive and noncohesive suspended particulate matter (SPM). The relative importance of these processes for SPM trapping varies substantially among estuaries depending on topography, fluvial and tidal forcing, and SPM composition. The high-frequency dynamics of ETMs are constrained by interactions with the low-frequency dynamics of the bottom pool of easily erodible sediments. Here, we use a transport decomposition to present processes that lead to convergent SPM transport, and review trapping mechanisms that lead to ETMs at the landward limit of the salt intrusion, in the freshwater zone, at topographic transitions, and by lateral processes within the cross section. We use model simulations of example estuaries to demonstrate the complex concurrence of ETM formation mechanisms. We also discuss how changes in SPM trapping mechanisms, often caused by direct human interference, can lead to the generation of hyperturbid estuaries.

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