Sedimentary facies and environment of the Pearl River Delta (Zhujiang-River, South China Sea)

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The main goal of the project is to quantify the relationship between the depositional environment in the Pearl River Delta/Estuary and its sedimentary facies. The environment will be described by the driving forces (hydrodynamic system) for the sediment transport features and ecological as well as anthropogenic impacts. Special attention will be paid to the role of events (strong storms/typhoons) for the redistribution of sediments. Facies characteristics describing the sediments are grain size, physical, mineralogical and geochemical properties. The relation between facies and environment will be analysed using methods of multivariate statictics. In addition, a transfer function will be elaborated to describe the relation between hydrographic regime and redistribution of sediments. What-if-sceanarios shall express the reaction of the sedimentary system to a change in the depositional environment. Assumptions of the IPCC will form the base of scenarios of sedimentological response to climate change. The models will be designed and implemented in a GIS environment.