Research on the Distribution Characteristics of Sediment Concentration in Haizhou Bay Based on Remote Sensing Technology and Water-Sediment Diffusion Theory

Suspended sediment concentration affects the erosion and deposition of estuaries and coastal zones, and affects channel construction and safety. Sediment settling velocity controls sediment transport and sedimentation processes, and is crucial for assessing sediment distribution, diffusion, and material transport. As an important means for the inversion study of sediment concentration in estuaries and coasts, remote sensing alone cannot establish a model of the nearshore suspended sediment concentra-tion field by inverting surface sediment. Based on the remote sensing inversion of surface sediment, this study, in combination with the vertical distribution calculation method of sediment concentration in estuaries, inversely deduced the sediment concentration patterns in the middle and bottom layers, and proposed a sediment settling velocity calculation formula considering turbulent shear and concentra-tion influence. The results show that the highest concentration of suspended sediment in the study area appears in the east of Guan River Estuary, which is characterized by a high concentration in the east and a low concentration in the west. At a low suspended sediment concentration, the settling velocity is positively correlated with the suspended sediment concentration. At a high suspended sediment con-centration, the two are negatively correlated. The method introduced in this study is simple and feasi-ble, and the results are stable and reliable. It can be effectively used to evaluate the suspended sediment concentration and sediment settling velocity in different research areas.