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RECENT HYDRO-MORPHOLOGICAL AND SEDIMENTOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN THE DANUBE DELTA, SAINT GEORGE BRANCH
Abstract
Morphological processes of the fluvial channel are controlled by liquid and solid fluxes through hydraulic forces exerted by flow and sediment transport, erosion, and deposition [1]. Large river deltas are complex alluvial systems of outstanding social, ecological, and economical importance, deeply influenced by human activity: dam, groins and dikes construction, meander cutoff. Since the 1880s intensive anthropogenic disturbances have affected the channel of the St. George branch, the southern distributary of the Danube River. The meander cutoff programme induced different hydrosedimentary impacts on the local distribution of river flow velocities, discharge, and sediment fluxes between the former meanders and the man-made canals [2]. The diversion of the flow induces strong modifications by acceleration of the fluxes through the artificial canals combined with dramatically enhanced deposition in the former meander. We present new data on the hydrological and sedimentary processes along three meanders of St. George branch, as an example to analyse the human impact in the Danube Delta. Bathymetry, flow velocity, bed sediments, suspended-load concentration, as well as liquid and solid discharge data were acquired throughout several cross sections of both natural channels and artificial canals of the three cutoffs. We use for this investigation acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) technology, in order to point out the distribution of the flow and sediment, along while the anthropic impact on the hydrosedimentary processes in each artificial canal and adjacent former meander. Additionally, 3D bathymetrical data (using multibeam technology) were acquired and very fine details of the bed were analysed. The data were collected on high waters, during a field campaign in June 2017.
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