Abstract

The Changjiang (Yangtze) Estuary is a typical medium tidal estuary with shoals and multi-order bifurcations in the world. The actions of floods on riverbed building and route divergence produced by the kinematical axes of fluctuation of tides of tides result in bifurcations of the estuary and differentiation of rivers. The South Branch plays the most important role in the evolution of the Changjiang Estuary due to its huge channel volume. This paper will aim to investigate the characteristics of the South Branch and give the law of its evolution.

Keywords: The South Branch, channel volume, Baimaosha Bar, stability