THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE SUSPENDED SEDIMENTS IN COASTAL REGIONS OF CHINA
我国沿海近岸带水域的悬沙分布特征

This paper describes the distribution of the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in coastal regions of China based on a great number of fieldobservation data on suspended sediments. The SSC decreases gradually south-ward and northward, respectively, from the Huanghe River mouth and theChangjiang Estuary-Hangzhou Bay, and alternates higher concentration with the lower. This paper also analyzes various factors, such as sediment discharges by runoff and from the sea, tidal currents, waves, coastal types, etc., affecting the SSC in time and space.From the analysis, it is found that sediment discharges by runoff and from the sea are the main factor for the characteristics of the distribution of the suspended sediments in the coastal regions of China, tidal current is the important factor for the daily variation and the monthly variation of the SSC, and the wave is the controlling factor for the seasonal variation of the SSC in the coastal regions, and the seasonal variation of the SSC in the coastal regions, and the seasonal variation of the SSC in the estuarine regions depends on the sediment discharges which are larger during the flood seasons and smaller during the dry seasons. Coastal types also affect the SSC in the local coastal regions. The regions with the higher SSC are mainly situated in the estuarine deltaic areas and the regions with lower SSC are basically located in the rocky and gravel coasts