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Coastal mangroves, thriving at the interface between land and sea, provide robust flood risk reduction. Projected increases in the frequency and magnitude of climate impact drivers such as sea level rise and wind and wave climatology reinforce the need to optimize the design and functionality of coastal protection works to increase resilience. Doing so effectively requires a sound understanding of the local coastal system. However, data availability particularly at muddy coasts remains a pronounced problem. As such, this paper captures a unique dataset for the Guyana coastline and focuses on relations between vegetation (mangrove) density, wave attenuation rates and sediment characteristics. These processes were studied along a cross-shore transect with mangroves fringing the coastline of Guyana. The data are publicly available at the 4TU Centre for Research Data (4TU.ResearchData) via 10.4121/c.5715269 (Best et al., 2022) where the collection Advancing Resilience Measures for Vegetated Coastline (ARM4VEG), Guyana, comprises of six key datasets. Suspended sediment concentrations typically exceeded 1 g L -1 with a maximum of 60 g L -1 , implying that we measured merely fluid-mud conditions across a 1 m depth. Time series of wind waves and fluid-mud density variations, recorded simultaneously with tide elevation and suspended sediment data, indicate that wave–fluid-mud interactions in the nearshore may be largely responsible for the accumulation of fine, muddy sediment along the coast. Sediment properties reveal a consolidated underlying bed layer. Vegetation coverage densities in the Avicennia-dominated forest were determined across the vertical with maximum values over the first 20 cm from the bed due to the roots and pneumatophores. Generalized total wave attenuation rates in the forest and along the mudflat were between 0.002–0.0032 m -1 and 0.0003–0.0004 m -1 respectively. Both the mangroves and the mudflats have a high wave-damping capacity. The wave attenuation in the mangroves is presumably dominated by energy losses due to vegetation drag, since wave attenuation due to bottom friction and viscous dissipation on the bare mudflats is significantly lower than wave dissipation inside the mangrove vegetation. Data collected corroborate the coastal defence function of mangroves by quantifying their contribution to wave attenuation and sediment trapping. The explicit linking of these properties to vegetation structure facilitates modelling studies investigating the mechanisms determining the coastal defence capacities of mangroves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal mangroves, thriving at the interface between land and sea, provide robust flood risk reduction. Projected increases in the frequency and magnitude of climate impact drivers such as sea level rise, wind and wave climatology reinforce the need to optimize the design and functionality of coastal protection works to increase resilience. Doing so effectively requires a sound understanding of the local coastal system. However, data availability particularly at muddy coasts remains a pronounced problem. As such, this paper captures a unique dataset for the Guyana coastline and focuses on relations between vegetation (mangrove) density, wave attenuation rates and sediment characteristics. These processes were studied along a cross-shore transect with mangroves fringing the coastline of Guyana. The data are publicly available at 4TU Centre for Research Data via https://doi.org/10.4121/c.5715269 (Best et al., 2022) where the Collection: Advancing Resilience Measures for Vegetated Coastline (ARM4VEG), Guyana comprises of six key datasets. Suspended-sediment concentrations typically exceeded 1 g/l with a maximum of 60 g/l, implying that we measured merely fluid mud conditions across a 1 m depth. Time series of wind waves and fluid-mud density variations, recorded simultaneously with tide elevation and suspended sediment data, indicate that wave/fluid-mud interactions in the nearshore may be largely responsible for the accumulation of fine, muddy sediment along the coast. Sediment properties reveal a consolidated underlying bed layer. Vegetation coverage densities in the Avicennia dominated forest were determined across the vertical with maximum values over the first 20 cm from the bed due to the roots and pneumatophores. Generalized total wave attenuation rates in the forest and along the mudflat were between 0.002-0.0032 m-1 and 0.0003-0.0004 m-1 respectively. Both the mangroves and the mudflats have a high wave damping capacity but the wave attenuation in the mangroves is presumably dominated by energy losses due to vegetation drag, since wave 30 attenuation due to bottom friction and viscous dissipation on the bare mudflats is significantly lower than those inside the mangrove vegetation. Data collected corroborate the coastal defence function of mangroves by quantifying their contribution to wave attenuation and sediment trapping. The explicit linking of these properties to vegetation structure facilitates modelling studies investigating the mechanisms determining the coastal defence capacities of mangroves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suspended sediment concentration is an important estuarine health indicator. Estuarine ecosystems rely on the maintenance of habitat conditions, which are changing due to direct human impact and climate change. This study aims to evaluate the impact of climate change relative to engineering measures on estuarine fine sediment dynamics and sediment budgets. We use the highly engineered San Francisco Bay-Delta system as a case study. We apply a process-based modeling approach (Delft3D-FM) to assess the changes in hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics resulting from climate change and engineering scenarios. The scenarios consider a direct human impact (shift in water pumping location), climate change (sea level rise and suspended sediment concentration decrease), and abrupt disasters (island flooding, possibly as the results of an earthquake). Levee failure has the largest impact on the hydrodynamics of the system. Reduction in sediment input from the watershed has the greatest impact on turbidity levels, which are key to primary production and define habitat conditions for endemic species. Sea level rise leads to more sediment suspension and a net sediment export if little room for accommodation is left in the system due to continuous engineering works. Mitigation measures like levee reinforcement are effective for addressing direct human impacts, but less effective for a persistent, widespread, and increasing threat like sea level rise. Progressive adaptive mitigation measures to the changes in sediment and flow dynamics resulting from sea level rise may be a more effective strategy. Our approach shows that a validated process-based model is a useful tool to address long-term (decades to centuries) changes in sediment dynamics in highly engineered estuarine systems. In addition, our modeling approach provides a useful basis for long-term, process-based studies addressing ecosystem dynamics and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peak river flows transport fine sediment, nutrients, and contaminants that may deposit in the estuary. This study explores the importance of peak river flows on sediment dynamics with special emphasis on channel network configurations. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which is connected to San Francisco Bay (California, USA), motivates this study and is used as a validation case. Besides data analysis of observations, we applied a calibrated process-based model (D-Flow FM) to explore and analyze high-resolution (∼100 m, ∼1 h) dynamics. Peak river flows supply the vast majority of sediment into the system. Data analysis of six peak flows (between 2012 and 2014) shows that on average, 40 % of the input sediment in the system is trapped and that trapping efficiency depends on timing and magnitude of river flows. The model has 90 % accuracy reproducing these trapping efficiencies. Modeled deposition patterns develop as the result of peak river flows after which, during low river flow conditions, tidal currents are not able to significantly redistribute deposited sediment. Deposition is quite local and mainly takes place at a deep junction. Tidal movement is important for sediment resuspension, but river induced, tide residual currents are responsible for redistributing the sediment towards the river banks and to the bay. We applied the same forcing for four different channel configurations ranging from a full delta network to a schematization of the main river. A higher degree of network schematization leads to higher peak-sediment export downstream to the bay. However, the area of sedimentation is similar for all the configurations because it is mostly driven by geometry and bathymetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]