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Sustainability
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Sediment Movement, Sustainable Water Conservancy and Water Transport
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Sediment Movement, Sustainable Water Conservancy and Water Transport

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 3954

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Junhong Zhang

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Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Resources Conversion and Pollution Control of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, College of Resources and Environmental Science, South-Central Minzu University, Wuhan 430074, China
Interests: sediment transport; fluvial processes; sediment dynamics; numerical modeling
Dr. Lingling Zhu

E-Mail
Guest Editor
Bureau of Hydrology, Changjiang Water Resources Commission, Wuhan 430010, China
Interests: sediment transport; river evolution; river numerical simulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yunping Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Tianjin Research Institute for Water Transport Engineering, Tianjin 300456, China
Interests: sediment transport; river evolution; flood disaster; estuarine and coastal science
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Dangwei Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China
Interests: flow and sediment transport; river evolution; sediment flocculation; numerical model of sediment transport; reservior sedimentation; reservior regulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

In recent decades, sediment transport has been a hot issue for sedimentologists to study. Especially in water conservancy and water transportation engineering, the changes in the topography of rivers, lakes, and estuaries caused by sediment movement are of great interest. Human activities have an increasingly important influence on the sediment movement of watersheds and rivers. The water resource development in large river terraces has greatly changed the water and sediment movement patterns in the upstream and downstream dams. Thus, increasing anthropogenic interventions affect rivers' hydrological processes and sediment dynamics and threaten the habitat structure and aquatic ecosystem diversity. An improved understanding of hydrological, hydrodynamic, and sediment transport and morphological processes is needed to address these challenges. Moreover, there is an urgent need to improve predictive models to increase the prediction accuracy of streambed evolution.

This Special Issue aims to bring together recent theoretical and applied research on a wide range of topics related to flow and water quality processes in modeling river and coastal watershed systems from the catchment to the coast, for example, innovative studies that use new monitoring, modeling, or analytical techniques to investigate the reciprocal response mechanisms of sediment movement under complex conditions a well as hydraulic engineering and water transport engineering applications. This Special Issue of Sustainability calls for innovative research papers on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

(1) Impacts of runoff and sediment transport variations;
(2) Sediment budget and sediment yields;
(3) Riverbed evolutionary process;
(4) Impacts of dams on the upstream and downstream hydrological conditions;
(5) Impacts of hydrological changes on morphological changes;
(6) Movement characteristics of suspended sediment and bed load sediment;
(7) Spatiotemporal morphological changes and the associated influences;
(8) Impacts of morphological changes on hydraulic structure and flood risk;
(8) Impacts of morphological changes on waterway maintenance;
(9) Variations in fluvial processes;
(10) Understanding grain size distribution changes and the associated morphological response;
(11) Natural and anthropogenic impacts on the morphological changes;
(12) River morphology and river ecosystem restoration;
(13) Riverbed incision, bank erosion, and coastal erosion;
(14) Improving the accuracy of riverbed evolution prediction;
(15) Quantifying hydro-morphological responses to the multi-objective optimal reservoir scheduling. 

Dr. Junhong Zhang
Dr. Lingling Zhu
Dr. Yunping Yang
Dr. Dangwei Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • coastal, estuarine, and river dynamics
  • numerical modeling
  • laboratory modeling and experimental studies
  • hydrodynamic processes
  • sediment transport and morphology
  • water conservancy
  • environmental hydraulics
  • sediment dynamics
  • morphodynamics
  • sediment budget

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2100 KiB  
Article
Response of Han River Estuary Discharge to Hydrological Process Changes in the Tributary–Mainstem Confluence Zone
by Shuo Ouyang, Changjiang Xu, Weifeng Xu, Junhong Zhang, Weiya Huang, Cuiping Yang and Yao Yue
Sustainability 2025, 17(14), 6507; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17146507 - 16 Jul 2025
Viewed by 190
Abstract
This study investigates the dynamic response mechanisms of discharge capacity in the Han River Estuary to hydrological process changes at the Yangtze–Han River confluence. By constructing a one-dimensional hydrodynamic model for the 265 km Xinglong–Hankou reach, we quantitatively decouple the synergistic effects of [...] Read more.
This study investigates the dynamic response mechanisms of discharge capacity in the Han River Estuary to hydrological process changes at the Yangtze–Han River confluence. By constructing a one-dimensional hydrodynamic model for the 265 km Xinglong–Hankou reach, we quantitatively decouple the synergistic effects of riverbed scouring (mean annual incision rate: 0.12 m) and Three Gorges Dam (TGD) operation through four orthogonal scenarios. Key findings reveal: (1) Riverbed incision dominates discharge variation (annual mean contribution >84%), enhancing flood conveyance efficiency with a peak flow increase of 21.3 m3/s during July–September; (2) TGD regulation exhibits spatiotemporal intermittency, contributing 25–36% during impoundment periods (September–October) by reducing Yangtze backwater effects; (3) Nonlinear interactions between drivers reconfigure flow paths—antagonism occurs at low confluence ratios (R < 0.15, e.g., Cd increases to 45 under TGD but decreases to 8 under incision), while synergy at high ratios (R > 0.25) reduces Hanchuan Station flow by 13.84 m3/s; (4) The 180–265 km confluence-proximal zone is identified as a sensitive area, where coupled drivers amplify water surface gradients to −1.41 × 10−3 m/km (2.3× upstream) and velocity increments to 0.0027 m/s. The proposed “Natural/Anthropogenic Dual-Stressor Framework” elucidates estuary discharge mechanisms under intensive human interference, providing critical insights for flood control and trans-basin water resource management in tide-free estuaries globally. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Movement, Sustainable Water Conservancy and Water Transport)
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13 pages, 3907 KiB  
Article
Experimental Study on the Anti-Scouring Characteristics of Bedrock in Engineering Reservoir Areas That Are Conducive to Sustainable Development
by Zhijing Li, Yisen Wang, Shiming Yao, Zhongwu Jin and Zhixinghua Hu
Sustainability 2025, 17(3), 977; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17030977 - 25 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1952
Abstract
High-speed water flow conditions can cause erosion of the bedrock in engineering areas. Due to the lack of accurate evaluation of bedrock scour and erosion rates, there has been a consumption of manpower and resources without achieving satisfactory engineering outcomes. Therefore, studying the [...] Read more.
High-speed water flow conditions can cause erosion of the bedrock in engineering areas. Due to the lack of accurate evaluation of bedrock scour and erosion rates, there has been a consumption of manpower and resources without achieving satisfactory engineering outcomes. Therefore, studying the scouring and erosion effects of water flow on bedrock is of significant importance for maintaining the sustainable development and safety of engineering projects. Using the bedrock prototype from the Xiaonanhai site in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, a model test device was developed to conduct anti-scour tests on the bedrock. The study quantitatively examined the basic physical properties, incipient erosion velocity, and erosion rates of different types of bedrock. The study found that the prototype bedrock under natural exposure, submerged immersion, and alternating wet and dry conditions showed a trend of decreased tensile strength, with the alternating wet and dry conditions being the most detrimental to maintaining the physical properties of the rock mass. The anti-scour velocity of silty claystone and clayey siltstone samples increased with the increase in tensile strength, and the erosion rate increased with the increase in shear stress. If the shear stress is kept constant, the erosion rate decreases with the increase in tensile strength. The erosion rate is inversely proportional to the ratio of the bedrock’s tensile strength to the riverbed shear stress, with the fitting relationship showing a piecewise linear distribution. The research results can provide guidance for the safe production of engineering involving bedrock erosion in engineering reservoir areas that are conducive to sustainable development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Movement, Sustainable Water Conservancy and Water Transport)
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23 pages, 4196 KiB  
Article
Riverbed Adjustments in Gravel–Sand Reaches Immediately Downstream of Large Reservoirs
by Sixuan Li, Lingling Zhu, Jing Yuan, Bingjiang Dong, Chaonan Lv and Chenggang Yang
Sustainability 2024, 16(24), 11245; https://doi.org/10.3390/su162411245 - 21 Dec 2024
Viewed by 1132
Abstract
The operation of large reservoirs significantly modifies flow–sediment regimes, and the reaches immediately downstream of the dams are the first to undergo responsive channel adjustments. Considering that the geomorphological responses are directly related to the flood control safety, channel stability and other sustainable [...] Read more.
The operation of large reservoirs significantly modifies flow–sediment regimes, and the reaches immediately downstream of the dams are the first to undergo responsive channel adjustments. Considering that the geomorphological responses are directly related to the flood control safety, channel stability and other sustainable functions of rivers, this paper explores the similarities and dissimilarities of the channel adjustments in the two reaches with gravel–sand beds immediately downstream of the Xiangjiaba reservoir and the Three Gorges Dam, respectively. The results show that major erosion primarily occurred during the initial years of reservoir impoundment. And then with the prominent reduction in washable sediment on the riverbed, the erosion intensity further weakened. It takes 6 to 13 years for the two reaches to reach a new state of relative equilibrium. In comparison, after the equilibrium state has been achieved, the reach with significant tributary sediment inflows exhibits alternating erosion and deposition dynamics, while the other remains relatively stable. The tributaries that transport a large amount of sediment during floods are the main sources of sediment deposition in the downstream reaches of the Xiangjiaba reservoir. However, the tributary inflow of the Qing River with low sediment concentrations has little impact on the riverbed evolution of the reaches from Yichang to Zhicheng immediately downstream of the Three Gorges Dam. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of geomorphic adjustments near dams in response to upstream damming. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sediment Movement, Sustainable Water Conservancy and Water Transport)
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