This research is funded by a Royal Society International Exchanges award with Prof. Doug Edmonds at Indiana Univeristy, USA. We are investigating how sediment is routed through delta environments (with a focus on the Wax Lake Delta in Louisiana, USA) as water levels change. The award has funded two field campaigns in November 2018 and March 2020.

Home to over 500 million people, deltas provide some of the world’s most fertile and productive land. Yet, rising sea-levels and declining inputs of sediment and water mean that the world’s deltas are sinking. Throughout delta networks, sediment is transferred along preferred pathways. The location of these pathways determines the ability of specific parts of the delta to grow, sustain land and support ecosystems. As discharge from the river upstream rises and falls across a flood wave, the spatial location of these pathways and the magnitude of sediment transport along them is likely to change. However, our understanding of how these changes impact on delta stability is lacking. The collaboration proposed here aims to identify and quantify the locations of, and variability within, sediment transport pathways of the Wax Lake Delta, USA. Using a numerical model capable of representing delta development we will then assess the response of these pathways, and the delta as a whole, to changes in incoming sediment and water supply. The enhanced understanding will enable more efficient and effective management plans to be developed and targeted to areas of the delta most at risk from rising sea-levels and reduced fluvial inputs of sediment and water