How much sediment is exchanged between North Sea and Wadden Sea and what are the dominant processes? How do bed forms in the channels and on the shoals look like and do they migrate? What is the sediment composition of channels and shoals? Where can we find worms or bivalves on the ebb-tidal delta and how abundant are they? To answer these questions, and many more, recently a unique field campaign was carried out in the Ameland tidal inlet system from the end of August till early October as part of the SEAWAD and Kustgenese 2.0 projects. In these projects NCK partners Rijkswaterstaat, Deltares, Delft University of Technology, Utrecht University and University of Twente join their forces.
To give a short overview: Five frames were deployed on the delta, each one fully equipped to measure flows, turbulence, waves, bed forms and suspended sediment size distributions and concentrations. Further, many box-cores and bed samples were taken for benthos and sediment analysis, sediment tracers were released and recovered, Jet-ski’s and Zodiacs assisted in drifter experiments, 13-hour transect measurements were done, bed levels were measured by Multibeam, and Aquadopp profilers measured flow across the tidal watersheds. In total 6 ships and over 35 people were involved. A lot of valuable data has been gathered and coming months and years the data will be analyzed.
Media attention field campaign
There was a news item on the national television (Watch from 09:48) featuring Bram van Prooijen (TUD) and Judith Litjens (RWS). Furthermore, there was an item in KRO Brandpunt, featuring Laura Brakenhoff (UU) and Judith Litjens (RWS), in which you can see the retrieval of the Aquadopp profilers.
Further information
More information about SEAWAD, the field campaign and Kustgenese 2.0 can be found via the following links.
