The effect of asymmetric dune roughness on tidal asymmetry in the Weser estuary

The bed of estuaries is often characterized by ripples and dunes of varying size. Whereas smaller bedforms adapt their morphological shape to the oscillating tidal currents, large compound dunes (here: asymmetric tidal dunes) remain stable for periods longer than a tidal cycle. Bedforms constitute a form roughness, that is, hydraulic flow resistance, which has a large‐scale effect on tidal asymmetry and, hence, on hydrodynamics, sediment transport, and morphodynamics of estuaries and coastal seas. Flow separation behind the dune crest and recirculation on the steep downstream side result in turbulence and energy loss. Since the energy dissipation can be related to the dune lee slope angle, asymmetric dune shapes induce variable flow resistance during ebb and flood phases. Here, a noncalibrated numerical model has been applied to analyze the large‐scale effect of symmetric and asymmetric dune shapes on estuarine tidal asymmetry evaluated by residual bed load sediment transport at the Weser estuary, Germany. Scenario simulations were performed with parameterized bed roughness of symmetric and asymmetric dune shapes and without dune roughness. The spatiotemporal interaction of distinct dune shapes with the main drivers of estuarine sediment and morphodynamics, that is, river discharge and tidal energy, is shown to be complex but substantial. The contrasting effects of flood‐ and ebb‐oriented asymmetric dunes on residual bed load transport rates and directions are estimated to be of a similar importance as the controls of seasonal changes of discharge on these net sediment fluxes at the Lower Weser estuary. This corroborates the need to consider dune‐induced directional bed roughness in numerical models of estuarine and tidal environments.

Estuarine tidal asymmetry is found to depend on directional dune‐induced flow resistance interacting on spatiotemporal scales with the combined influence of fluvial discharge and tidal forcing. The nonequilibrium nature of asymmetric dunes in tidal flow is critical to large‐scale hydrodynamics and bed load sediment fluxes and needs to be addressed through inter‐tidal‐phase variable bedform roughness in numerical models of tidal environments.

Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW), Hamburg, Germany

Kiel Marine Science (KMS)

German Research Foundation (DFG) http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659