Human activities have changed the shapes of river deltas

van de Giesen, Nick

doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00047-y

NEWS AND VIEWS
22 January 2020

Human activities have changed the shapes of river deltas

A model has been devised that quantitatively describes how the shape of a river delta is affected by sediments, tides and waves. It reveals that the area of delta land is increasing globally, as a result of human activities upstream.

Nick van de Giesen ⁰

Nick van de Giesen
1. Nick van de Giesen is in the Department of Water Management, Delft University of Technology, 2628 Delft, the Netherlands.
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Undisturbed river deltas are diverse ecosystems that encompass tidal wetlands and floodplains. Because of their rich soils and convenient positions for trade and transport, many deltas have also become hotspots of socio-economic development. The Nile delta, for example, with its iconic triangular shape, has been one such locus for more than 5,000 years. Not all deltas are triangular, however — their morphology can vary widely. Writing in Nature, Nienhuis et al.¹ report a model that correlates the forces that shape deltas with delta morphology, and use it to analyse the shapes of some 11,000 coastal deltas. This global overview allows the authors to assess how delta morphology is affected by changes in sediment delivery caused by river damming and soil erosion.

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Nature 577, 473-474 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00047-y

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