Estuary classification method for considering climate change effects in South Korea

Sea level rise attributed to climate change is expected to affect the estuaries of South Korea significantly. The seawater intrudes into the beds of river channels and into aquifers near the coastal zone, and such processes are expected to be magnified in the climate change regime. Further, flooding and erosion are expected to be intensified at the shorelines of rivers and in coastal zones. Such adverse effects are expected to occur, which will depend on the individual characteristics of different estuaries. Some of these characteristics include the volume of a tidal prism, the length of shoreline peripheral, and the bathymetries in the estuaries. Our present work modified the existing estuary classification systems to be more responsive to climate change; in particular, we have included the wave change impact. Many studies have proposed estuarine classifications recognizing the various features of each estuary. There are several ways to classify estuaries. First, estuaries can be classified with the Estuarine Circulation Classification (ECC) system. Second, Geomorphological Classification (GC) categorizes estuaries with the dominances among physical components. Third, Estuary Environment Classification (EEC) classifies with indices representing the physical processes and estuary shapes. However, these existing methods did not involve qualitative categorizations and also excluded the wave factor. They also did not include a category for the artificial estuaries, which are prevalent in Korea. Therefore, efficiently constructing a comprehensive response plan for the climate change based on these existing classification systems was not possible. Thus, a new quantitative method including the wave index and considering the artificial estuary is proposed here that can be utilized in a response to climate change.