Evolution of the Bengal Delta and Its Prevailing Processes

ABSTRACT Akter, J.; Sarker, M.H.; Popescu, I., and Roelvink, D., 2016. Evolution of the Bengal Delta and its prevailing processes. Bangladesh, occupying low-lying floodplains and tidal plains, has one of the largest and the most disaster-prone populous deltas in the world. The Bengal Delta is a tide-dominated delta, where tides play the key role in the sediment dispersal process and in shaping the delta. There are many studies and reports on river-dominated deltas, but research is sparse on tide-dominated deltas. The Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers, which combined form one of the three largest riverine sources of water and sediment for the world's oceans, have developed the Bengal Delta to its present form with an aerial extent of 104 km2. About 1012 m3 of water with 109 tonnes of sediment per year make this system morphologically active. In the last five decades, the Bengal Delta has prograded at a rate of 17 km2/y, whereas most large deltas elsewhere in the world suffered from sediment starvation. Delta p...