In the light of the regional physiography and its effect on clay mineral composition of cohesive sediment (d < 0.005 mm) the source area of cohesive sediment in the Yangtze Estuary can be identified as three supplying regions: the main stem of the Yangtze River, the deltaic region of the abandoned Yellow River including the northwest Huanghai Sea and the Hangzhou Bay. Based on the evaluation of clay mineral composition in the supplying regions and the converging region, a computational model is established. More than 89.6% of cohesive sediment comes from the Yangtze River, a considerable amount is replenished from the deltaic region of the abandoned Yellow River while some part of the cohesive sediment load is transported from the Yangtze Estuary to the Hangzhou Bay. Computation results reveal that the annual deposit of cohesive sediment in the Yangtze Estuary amounts to 45.54 x 106 t. The annual cohesive sediment load replenished from the deltaic region of the abandoned Yellow River is 27.30 x 106t, while the annual cohesive sediment load transported to the Hangzhou Bay is 22.47 x 106 t. The amount of deposit in the Yangtze Estuary has been checked against the value obtained by comparing bathemetry of the Yangtze Estuary in 1915 and 1963.
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