Recent morphological changes off the shoreface of Jinwoodo and Sinjado in the Nakdong River Estuary: 2007-2012

Abstract

Recently, more attention has been paid to the geomorphological changes in the Nakdong River Estuary, because those changes are caused by artificial activities including weirs, reclamation and construction. In order to analyze quantitatively the recent geomorphological variability in the Nakdong River Estuary, we surveyed the depth and elevation of submarine topography near Jinwoodo and Sinjado from March 2007 to February 2012. A statistical method (based on Digital Shoreline Analysis System) and an Empirical Orthogonal Functions method were used to evaluate the morphological changes. According to the statistical variables (DCE, NDC, EPR, LRR), the highest amount and rate of accumulation were recorded around the Gadeokdo whereas the greatest amount of erosion appeared around the coast off the eastern part of Sinjado. In particular, a dynamic variation of morphology was clearly observed in the vicinity of the sub-tidal channel located between Jinwoodo and Sinjado, which seems to be attributable to channel migration. As a result of the EOF method, the first mode (48.7%) is most closely related to the pattern of morphological variability that might be associated with the westerly movement of sediment by longshore current. The spatial variability of the second mode (16.6%) was high in the shoreface of Sinjado, showing a 4-year periodicity of temporal variability. The strong correlation (coefficient 0.73) between the time coefficient and suspended sediment discharge from Nakdong River emphasizes the role of sediment discharge to deposition in this area. The spatial variability of the third mode (11.3%) was distributed mainly around the coast off the eastern part of Sinjado, which is related to the movement of the coastline of Sinjado. Based on the last 5 year's data, our results suggest that the study area is characterized on the whole by a depositional pattern, but the extent of sedimentation is different locally.