Depth-limiting resistant layers restrict dimensions and positions of estuarine channels and bars

Estuaries comprise channels vital for economic activity and bars as valuable habi tats. They are increasingly under human-induced pressures (e.g. sea-level rise and dredging), resulting in morphological changes that affect navigability, flood safety and ecology. Antecedent geology may strongly steer how estuary channels will adapt to these...

Human-caused avulsion in the Rhine-Meuse delta before historic embankment (The Netherlands)

Although the shifting of deltaic river branches (avulsion) is a natural process that has become increasingly influenced by humans, the impact of early human activities as a driver of avulsion success has remained poorly explored. This study demonstrates how two important avulsions in the downstream part of the Rhine-Meuse delta, The Netherlands,...

Mapping buried holocene landscapes. Past lowland environments, palaeoDEMs and preservation in GIS

In a geological GIS-data recombination project, a digital map was produced that contains information on the Netherlands’ former coastal and delta plain landscapes over the last 14,000 years: the Holocene and the very end of the Pleistocene. The polygon map product is accompanied by a set of palaeoDEMs (Digital Elevation Models) indicating the...

Natural levee evolution in the Rhine-Meuse delta, the Netherlands, during the first millennium CE

This paper presents reconstructions on natural levee development in the Rhine-Meuse delta, the Netherlands, during the first millennium CE, covering the full delta plain. It is the first study that performs this on a delta scale, which allows seeing the delta-wide trends on levee-forming controls and their feedbacks. We mapped the levee...

A new GIS approach for reconstructing and mapping dynamic late Holocene coastal plain palaeogeography

The geomorphological development of Holocene coastal plains around the world has been studied since the beginning of the twentieth century from various disciplines, resulting in large amounts of data. However, the overwhelming quantities and heterogeneous nature of this data have caused the divided knowledge to remain inconsistent and fragmented...