Abstract

Due to the geographical shifts, together with other natural and anthropogenic impacts, the entire modern Yellow River Delta experienced complicated patterns of erosion and accretion. Briefly, the abandoned promontories suffered badly erosion with the coastline retreating landward quickly, and on the contrary, the active promontories underwent a great deal of accretion with the coastline advancing seaward quickly. The major factors affecting the evolution of the modern Yellow River Delta were summarized in this paper, in order to give some evidences to quantify the effects of these factors for better prediction about the deltaic evolution. These factors mainly include: (1) natural factors, including neotectonics, meteorological conditions, land subsidence and sea level rise, the Yellow River runoff and sediment load, sedimentary pressing process and coastal processes, and (2) anthropogenic factors, including constructions of dams and reservoirs along the mainstream and the tributaries of the Yellow River, regulation of water and sediment of large reservoirs, soil and water conservation in the drainage basin, riverine water-diversion, resources extraction on the delta, geographical shift of the river course on the delta and artificial protective structures along the delta, among others.

Keywords: Yellow River Delta, Accretion, Erosion, natural and anthropogenic impacts