LONG-TERM OBSERVATIONS OF FLOW AND SUSPENDED SEDIMENT IN A TIDALLY-DOMINATED ESTUARY

Coastal wetlands are under a great deal of pressure from forces of human population's intervention. It is important to measure and assess erosion and deposition rate of suspended sediment in coastal zones. To measure the suspended sediment transport along and across a tidally-dominated river, Ota River, we deployed 3 AquaDopps in two different arrangements, one in 3 stations along the river in right, left, and center of the Ota Floodway for a month, and the second was 3 stations in one cross sections at the same time. The first experiment managed to be done in the winter of 2008 and the latter in Aug. 2008. Surveying the results points out that continuous suspended sediment settlement happens along the most length of the river; in some areas in consequence of meander shape of the river, incessant transversal suspended sediment transport formed sandbars in one side of the river.