COASTAL EVOLUTION NEAR THE YELLOW RIVER MOUTH AND STABILITY ANALYSIS OF THE NEARBY ARTIFICIAL ISLAND

River channels and coastlines near the modern Yellow River mouth were identified using Landsat TM satellite remote sensing images, and the evolvement feature of the river channel, coastline and nearshore erosion/deposition pattern were studied. The stability of the large-scale artificial island in Yellow River mouth was studied from the viewpoint of dynamic evolution of the entirely new and old mouth region based on historical measured data. It is found that the downstream channel after the Qing 8 diverged twice and could be divided into three stages. The coast is entirely depositional in the new mouth, but erosional in the old mouth; the area surrounding the artificial island is effected by such seabed evolutionary pattern, i.e. erosion in south and deposition in north; the evolvement of the new and old mouth spits and uneven subsidence of the local strata threatens the stability of the artificial island. It is proposed in this paper to build protection constructions on both sides of the artificial island, and to strengthen the monitoring of the subsidence of the whole delta region.