On the distribution of sand banks in the southwestern North Sea and an approach of predicting them

The morphology of the southwestern North Sea is greatly influenced by sand banks. With this paper these features have been identified by analysing bathymetric data and estimating their geometric properties. This allowed an assessment of the dimensions of the structures and enabled an economical evaluation of the associated sand resources. In fact, there are several aspects that are of economic interest, which include the sand as a potential exploitable resource and the interaction of the sand banks with submarine infrastructures, such as cables, pipelines and shipping channels. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate and compare several oceanographic and sedimentary factors on the formation and distribution of the sand banks in the southwestern North Sea to create a prediction model for the bank occurance. The main focus was on the relation between critical shear stress of the bedload and the shear stress of currents and waves and it's effects on the sand bank formation. It has been figured out that the maximum bed shear stress needs to exceed the critical shear stress by a factor of nine to allow sand bank formation to a greater extend. Thus, this study contributes new knowledge about sand banks in the southern North Sea.

Automated summary

This study evaluates the influence of sand banks on the morphology of the southwestern North Sea by analyzing bathymetric data and estimating geometric properties. The research highlights the economic significance of sand as a potential exploitable resource and the critical role of bed shear stress in sand bank formation.