Morphodynamics of river and coastal transport of sediments in mega delta basin, Niger Delta Nigeria

Niger delta is recognized as the third mega deltas in the history of mankind. Understanding the sediment dynamics and morphodynamics relationship between the morphology of the bedrocks to the hydrodynamic of its transport sediments is crucial for water bodies' preservation, conservation, and sustainability. Sediments transportation in Niger delta involves a two-phase flow system in which one phase is considered to be fluid and the other phase is solid. The water bodies is seldom saturated with sediments occasioned by irregular solid waste dumps, erosions debris, and transported at ease without any form of management or control for many years now. Consequently, poor water resources, agriculture and fishery production are at extreme lost as sediment transport and deposition influences great magnitude of useful river dynamics. Therefore, the objective of this study is focused on whether sediment transport has an effect on the morphology of the channel in the Niger Delta basin. It is necessary to determine the relationship between these two key variables; Sediment yield and channel morphology. A correlation matrix was generated in MS Excel to determine the underlying relationship between the variables under study with a coefficient of determination of 11.23% and a positive correlation between suspended sediment yield, bed load and channel morphology of +0.345. The paper will be useful to research institutions, water resources agencies, government and environmental experts and engineers. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.