Based on a state-of-the-art modeling tool, we explore the tidal propagation response to land reclamation in the Lingding bay (LDB), China over the last century. Tidal velocity, K1 and M2 phase and amplitude, as well as the tidal prism were analyzed. We show that reclamation leads to tidal amplitude and velocity increased, which may aggravate coastal safety against flooding. Interestingly, a threshold behavior in tidal dynamic regime response to reclamation was found around 1989. Our analysis indicates that the tidal dynamics in LDB response to land reclamation is nonlinear and the increased lateral difference resulted in these shifts in tidal motion.
As the most urbanized location of the world, estuaries have been suffering severe anthropologic impacts on a global scale even though their vital roles in whole environment system (Fairbridge, 1980; Gillanders, 2003; Gill et al., 2001; Wal et al., 2002; Wang et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2015). Human interventions, from perspectives of engineering, include land reclamation, navigation channel dredging, mining activities, bridge construction and so on, have contribute to multiple changes in terms of hydrodynamics and sediment transport in estuary system, which ultimately lead to exceeding of estuarine sustained thresholds, and contribute to coastal hazards (Wang et al., 2015; Zhu et al., 2016). Therefore, natural properties have been taken more and more consideration when designing and conduction engineering works. For example, building with nature projects and natural-based coastal defense are two novel examples which provide new insights on estuarine and coastal engineering in past decades is rather significant for further coastal engineering design and management.
Land reclamation has been considered as one of the best solutions to meet the increasing demand for land expansion as well as the economic development in the estuarine and coastal zones all over the world (Gao et al., 2014; Qiao et al., 2018; Yang and Chui, 2017a, 2017b). A large amount of studies have investigated the impact of reclamation on tidal dynamics and morphology. For instance, the land reclamation had altered the tidal current velocity and amplitude (Lin et al., 2015; Manda and Matsuoka, 2006;Lu et al., 2011; Zhu et al., 2016); increased the water levels (Liang et al., 2015); changed the salt transport pattern and the incoming tidal energy flux (Yang and Chui, 2017b), which eventually lead to increase the probability of coastal hazards and need more coastal defense works in turn.
