Abstract
Modern-day deltas exist in a wide variety of settings. Despite the various environmental contrasts, all actively prograding deltas have at least one common attribute: a river supplies clastic sediment to the coast and inner shelf more rapidly than it can be removed by marine processes. The most important processes controlling the geometry and landforms in deltas are climate, water and sediment discharge and its variability, river mouth processes, nearshore wave power, tides and tidal regime, nearshore currents, shelf slope, tectonics of the receiving basin, and receiving basin geometry.
Many present-day deltas are experiencing relatively large coastal landloss; this results from the complex interaction of many physical, chemical, and biological processes that operate in the natural environment and, in more recent times, the processes induced by man’s utilization of this environment. All of these processes operate at different scales and magnitudes, in both time and space; some are amenable to manipulation by man, while others are essentially out of his control. Natural processes include sea level changes, subsidence and compaction, changes in deltaic sites of deposition, catastrophic events such as hurricanes, and biologically-induced factors. Man-induced factors include dams and levees, canal dredging, and fluid withdrawal.
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Coleman, J.M., Roberts, H.H. (1989). Deltaic coastal wetlands. In: van der Linden, W.J.M., Cloetingh, S.A.P.L., Kaasschieter, J.P.K., van de Graaff, W.J.E., Vandenberghe, J., van der Gun, J.A.M. (eds) Coastal Lowlands. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1064-0_1
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