Contrasted sediment processes and morphological adjustments in three successive cutoff meanders of the Danube delta

Since the 1980s intensive anthropogenic disturbances have affected the channel of the St. George branch, the southern distributary of the Danube River. The meander cutoff programme since 1984―1988 induced different hydrosedimentary impacts on the local distribution of river flow velocities, discharge, and sediment fluxes between the former meanders and the man-made canals (Ichim and Radoane, 1986; Popa, 1997; Panin, 2003). This paper selects three large cutoff meander reaches of the St. George branch (the Mahmudia, Dunavăţ de Sus, and Dunavăţ de Jos meanders noted here as M1, M2, and M3, respectively) as an example to analyse the human impact in the Danube River delta. The diversion of the flow induces strong modifications by acceleration of the fluxes through the artificial canals combined with dramatically enhanced deposition in the former meander where it was observed in two cases (M1 and M3) with slight modifications in M2. An exceptional flood that occurred in April 2006 offered a good opportunity for scanning different cross sections of the meander systems. Bathymetry, flow velocity, suspended-load concentration, and liquid and solid discharge data were acquired throughout several cross sections of both natural channels and artificial canals of the three cutoffs, using acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) technology, in order to investigate the distribution of the flow and sediment and its impact on the hydrosedimentary processes in each channelized reach and adjacent former meander. Therefore, the results obtained during the 2006 flood were referred to a long-term evolution (1970―2006), analysed by GIS techniques.