Abstract
Coastal tidal creeks are important channels for exchanges of material and energy between sea and land, and play an important role in the ecological protection of tidal flats. Although tidal creeks have evolved differently in various regions, the evolutionary process of tidal creeks in the Huanghe (Yellow) River delta of China, one of the most active deltas worldwide, is not entirely clear. Therefore, the evolution of tidal creeks from 1981 to 2021 in the delta was investigated by quantitatively analysing the tidal creeks and developing a standard for dividing their evolution periods. Visual interpretation and supervised classification methods were applied to the Landsat images to extract the tidal creek network, and 17 groups of tidal creek systems were selected. Results indicate that Creek S1 was the most developed creek for having 113 tidal creeks totaling 65.8 km in length, while Creek E3 had the fastest growth rate for having average annual increase of 1.9 km. Meanwhile, the level of tidal creeks increased, the average and median lengths of tidal creeks increased, and the number of tidal creeks decreased since 1981. The evolution of the tidal creek system could be divided into four stages, namely, rising, developing, stabilizing, and degrading. Analyses of a representative tidal creek show that there was no degenerated tidal creek during the rising period, with an increase in the number of 50 and a length increase of 57.9 km between 1981 and 1989. The proportion of new tidal creeks in the developing period was more than 50% and the new tidal creeks in the stabilizing period were equal to the degraded tidal creeks. Extinct tidal creeks were greater than 50% during the degrading period. There was no fixed order of tidal creek evolution in each period, and there may be a skip in evolution. Our findings provided a reference for studying the evolution of tidal creeks.
Similar content being viewed by others
6 Data Availability Statement
Publicly available datasets were analysed in this study. The Landsat remote sensing data can be found here: Geospatial Data Cloud (https://www.gscloud.cn/home).
References
Allen J R L. 2000. Morphodynamics of Holocene salt marshes: a review sketch from the Atlantic and Southern North Sea coasts of Europe. Quaternary Science Reviews, 19(12): 1155–1231, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(99)00034-7.
Belliard J P, Toffolon M, Carniello L et al. 2015. An ecogeomorphic model of tidal channel initiation and elaboration in progressive marsh accretional contexts. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 120(6): 1040–1064, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JF003445.
Chen X, Zhang M L, Jiang H Z. 2022. Morphological characteristics and hydrological connectivity evaluation of tidal creeks in coastal wetlands. Land, 11(10): 1707, https://doi.org/10.3390/land11101707.
Chirol C, Haigh I D, Pontee N et al. 2018. Parametrizing tidal creek morphology in mature saltmarshes using semi-automated extraction from lidar. Remote Sensing of Environment, 209: 291–311, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.11.012.
D’Alpaos A, Lanzoni S, Marani M et al. 2005. Tidal network ontogeny: channel initiation and early development. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 110(F2): F02001, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JF000182.
D’Alpaos A, Lanzoni S, Marani M et al. 2007. Spontaneous tidal network formation within a constructed salt marsh: observations and morphodynamic modelling. Geomorphology, 91(3–4): 186–197, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2007.04.013.
Frazier P S, Page K J. 2000. Water body detection and delineation with Landsat TM data. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 66(12): 1461–1467.
Geng L, D’Alpaos A, Sgarabotto A et al. 2021. Intertwined eco-morphodynamic evolution of salt marshes and emerging tidal channel networks. Water Resources Research, 57(11): e2021WR030840, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR030840.
Geng L, Gong Z, Lanzoni S et al. 2018. A new method for automatic definition of tidal creek networks. Journal of Coastal Research, 85(sp1): 156–160, https://doi.org/10.2112/SI85-032.1.
Gong Z, Lv T Y, Geng L et al. 2017a. Mechanisms underlying the dynamic evolution of an open-coast tidal flat-creek system: I: physical model design and tidal creek morphology. Advances in Water Science, 28(1): 86–95, https://doi.org/10.14042/j.cnki.32.1309.2017.01.010. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Gong Z, Geng L, Lv T Y et al. 2017b. Mechanisms underlying the dynamic evolution of an open-coast tidal flat-creek system: II: influence of tidal range. Advances in Water Science, 28(2): 231–239, https://doi.org/10.14042/j.cnki.32.1309.2017.02.008. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Gong Z N, Wang Q W, Guan H L et al. 2020. Extracting tidal creek features in a heterogeneous background using Sentinel-2 imagery: a case study in the Yellow River Delta, China. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 41(10): 3653–3676, https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2019.1707898.
Gong Z N, Mou K N, Wang Q W et al. 2021. Parameterizing the Yellow River Delta tidal creek morphology using automated extraction from remote sensing images. Science of The Total Environment, 769: 144572, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144572.
Hanssen J L J, van Prooijen B C, Volp N D et al. 2022. Where and why do creeks evolve on fringing and bare tidal flats?. Geomorphology, 403: 108182, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2022.108182.
Horton R E. 1945. Erosional development of streams and their drainage basins, hydrophysical approach to quantitative morphology. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 56(3): 275–370, https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1945)56[275:EDOSAT]2.0.CO;2.
Kearney W S, Fagherazzi S. 2016. Salt marsh vegetation promotes efficient tidal channel networks. Nature Communications, 7(1): 12287, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12287.
Kirwan M L, Murray A B. 2007. A coupled geomorphic and ecological model of tidal marsh evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(15): 6118–6122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0700958104.
Lao C C, Xin P, Zuo Y et al. 2022. Effect of fractional vegetation cover on the evolution of tidal creeks of the Jiuduansha shoal in Yangtze river Estuary (China) during 1996–2020. Advances in Water Science, 33(1): 15–26, https://doi.org/10.14042/j.cnki.3.1309.2022.01.002. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Li P, Ke Y H, Bai J H et al. 2019. Spatiotemporal dynamics of suspended particulate matter in the Yellow River Estuary, China during the past two decades based on time-series Landsat and Sentinel-2 data. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 149: 110518, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110518.
Lv T Y, Gong Z, Zhang C K et al. 2016. Reviews of morphological characteristics and evolution processes of silty mud tidal creeks. Journal of Hohai University (Natural Sciences), 44(2): 178–188, https://doi.org/10.3876/j.Issn.1000-1980.2016.02.014. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Manavalan P, Sathyanath P, Rajegowda G L. 1993. Digital image analysis techniques to estimate waterspread for cap acity evaluation of reservoirs. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 59(9): 1389–1395.
Mou K N, Gong Z N, Qiu H C. 2021. Spatiotemporal differentiation and development process of tidal creek network morphological characteristics in the Yellow River Delta. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 31(11): 1633–1654, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-021-1915-z.
Qian N, Zhang R, Zhou Z D. 1987. Riverbed Evolution. Science Press, Beijing. 584p. (in Chinese)
Rinaldo A, Rodriguez-Iturbe I, Rigon R. 1998. Channel networks. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 26(1): 289–327, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.earth.26.1.289.
Schwarz C, Ye Q H, van der Wal D et al. 2014. Impacts of salt marsh plants on tidal channel initiation and inheritance. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 119(2): 385–400, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JF002900.
Steel T J, Pye K. 1997. The development of salt marsh tidal creek networks: evidence from the UK. In: Proceedings of the Canadian Coastal Conference. University of Guelph, Guelph. p.267–280.
Stefanon L, Carniello L, D’Alpaos A et al. 2010. Experimental analysis of tidal network growth and development. Continental Shelf Research, 30(8): 950–962, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2009.08.018.
Strahler A N. 1964. Quantitative geomorphology of drainage basin and channel networks. In: Chow V T ed. Handbook of Applied Hydrology: McGraw Hill, New York. p.4–39.
Tejedor A, Longjas A, Edmonds D A et al. 2017. Entropy and optimality in river deltas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(44): 11651–11656, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1708404114.
Temmerman S, Bouma T J, Van de Koppel J et al. 2007. Vegetation causes channel erosion in a tidal landscape. Geology, 35(7): 631–634, https://doi.org/10.1130/G23502A.1.
Vandenbruwaene W, Meire P, Temmerman S. 2012. Formation and evolution of a tidal channel network within a constructed tidal marsh. Geomorphology, 151–152: 114–125, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.01.022.
Vandenbruwaene W, Bouma T J, Meire P et al. 2013. Biogeomorphic effects on tidal channel evolution: impact of vegetation establishment and tidal prism change. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 38(2): 122–132, https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.3265.
Vlaswinkel B M, Cantelli A. 2011. Geometric characteristics and evolution of a tidal channel network in experimental setting. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 36(6): 739–752, https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.2099.
Wang K F. 2019. Evolution of Yellow River Delta coastline based on remote sensing from 1976 to 2014, China. Chinese Geographical Science, 29(2): 181–191, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-019-1023-5.
Wang Q W, Gong Z N, Guan H L et al. 2019. Extracting method of tidal creek features under heterogeneous background at Yellow River Delta using remotely sensed imagery. Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology, 30(9): 3097–3107, https://doi.org/10.13287/j.1001-9332.201909.019. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Wu D L, Shen Y M, Fang R J. 2013. A morphological analysis of tidal creek network patterns on the central Jiangsu coast. Acta Geographica Sinica, 68(7): 955–965. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Xie C J, Cui B S, Xie T et al. 2020a. Reclamation shifts the evolutionary paradigms of tidal channel networks in the Yellow River Delta, China. Science of the Total Environment, 742: 140585, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140585.
Xie C J, Cui B S, Xie T et al. 2020b. Hydrological connectivity dynamics of tidal flat systems impacted by severe reclamation in the Yellow River Delta. Science of the Total Environment, 739: 139860, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139860.
Yan S G. 2002. The Growth and Evolution of Tidal Creeks on the Prograding Mud Flat in Jiangsu Province. Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing. 52p. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Yang W, Sun T, Yang Z F. 2016. Effect of activities associated with coastal reclamation on the macrobenthos community in coastal wetlands of the Yellow River Delta, China: a literature review and systematic assessment. Ocean & Coastal Management, 129: 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2016.04.018.
Yu D X, Han G X, Wang X J et al. 2022. Effects of Spartina alterniflora invasion on morphological characteristics of tidal creeks and plant community distribution in the Yellow River Estuary. Chinese Journal of Ecology, 41(1): 42–49, https://doi.org/13292/j.1000-4890.202201.003. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Yu X J, Xue Z S, Zhang Z S et al. 2019. Impacts of tidal channels on typical landscapes of wetland in the Yellow River Delta. Journal of Natural Resources, 34(12): 2504–2515, https://doi.org/10.31497/zrzyxb.20191202. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Zhou S W, Wang C, Li Y F et al. 2022. Study on spatiotemporal variation and hydrological connectivity of tidal creek evolution in Yancheng coastal wetlands. Environmental Science and Pollution Research International, 30(13): 37143–37156, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24871-z.
Zhou Z, Stefanon L, Olabarrieta M et al. 2014. Analysis of the drainage density of experimental and modelled tidal networks. Earth Surface Dynamics, 2(1): 105–116, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-2-105-2014.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2021ME167) and the Key Research and Development Program of Shandong Province (No. 2022CXGC010401)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Han, Z., Jin, K., Zong, Q. et al. Examining the evolution of tidal creeks in the Huanghe River delta using multi-temporal Landsat images. J. Ocean. Limnol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-023-3102-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-023-3102-9