The sediment loads carried by the Berau river have increased drastically over the past decades, mainly due to deforestation of parts of the hinterland. Part of the terrestrial sediment is transported as suspended load to the barrier reefs, where it may harm coral reef ecosystems. Coral reefs are complex, dynamic, and sensitive systems. Slight changes in the reef environment may have effects on the health of coral reefs. Therefore it is essential to understand and predict how the turbid water form the Berau river mixes over the shelf region and how this influences the dynamics in the coral reef area. read more

The Berau delta and barrier reef system, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, represents a complex coastal system with a variety of coastal landforms. This project focuses on studying the conditions under which the estuary acts as either a trap or a conduit of sediment. Given the river discharge and sediment supply from the Berau drainage basin, the actual flow and sediment transport through the tidal river, the estuary and the coastal shelf towards the coral reefs can be estimated. read more

The purpose of the Coast3D project is to improve understanding of the physics of coastal sand transport and morphodynamics, to remedy the present lack of validation data of sand transport and morphology suitable for testing numerical models of coastal processes, to test a representative sample of numerical models for predicting coastal sand transport and morphodynamics against this data, to deliver validated modelling tools, and methodologies for their use, in a form suitable for coastal zone management, to deliver a set of guidelines for practical coastal zone management. read more

This project aims to reconstruct the transgression of the fluvial valley, with emphasis on the interlinked response of the coastal and fluvial to rapid sea-level rise. To do so, beside collecting new data, existing subsurface data from many different sources are integrated in a single database. With this data, past sea levels and the development of the study area are reconstructed. Using the results, sequence stratigraphic models will be tested. read more

Bifurcations distribute water, sediment and contaminants over distributaries in deltas. The aim of this study is to develop and test a bifurcation stability model for time-scales of 10¹-10³yr, in which water and sediment is distributed depending on both local (e.g., meandering, bifurcation planform) and regional controls (e.g., climate, base-level). Bifurcations are key elements in delta evolution on time-scales of 10²-10³yr and river flooding mitigation on time-scales of 10¹-10²yr. read more