CHANGES IN COASTLINE AND DEPOSITION/EROSION PATTERN OF RUSHAN BAY, JIAODONG PENINSULA, CHINA UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES IN RECENT 40 YEARS

Field survey, remote sensing, GIS and DEM based on nautical charts were used to study the change in coastal landforms, coastlines, geomorphology and scouring/silting patterns in the Rushan Bay for the last 40 years so as to trace the impact of human activities, especially large area aquaculture on coastal landforms evolution. The results suggest that before the massive human activities occurred, the Rushan Bay was under the control of an asymmetric flood tide and suffered from siltation in general. Progradational deposition dominated the past 40 years. The water area was filled by sediments and became a marine plain. A large area of tidal flat has been developed as artificial ponds between the tidal flat and marine plain for aquaculture. The original material exchange mode was changed. As the result, the landforms of the Rushan Bay changed notably. Although it was still under the control of the asymmetric flood tide, the asymmetry had significantly decreased, which led to the slowing down of sedimentation or turned to erosion. Therefore, human activities in the recent 40 years have profoundly changed the original landform evolution in the Rushan Bay.