The Dongsha Shoal is one of the largest shoals in the South Yellow Sea and has important marine ecological value. The shoal extends in a south-north direction and is controlled by the regional dominating tidal currents. Recently, due to human activities and some natural factors, the geomorphic dynamics of the Dongsha Shoal has undergone drastic changes. However, few people have proposed quantitative research on the changes of tidal flat morphology, let alone the long-term sequence analysis of sand ridge lines. Hence, we attempt to take the Dongsha Shoal in the Radial Sand Ridges as the research area, and analyze the trends of the long-term morphological evolution of the sand ridge lines over the period 1973-2016 based on a high-density time series of medium-resolution satellite images. The sand ridge line generally moves from southeast to northwest, and the position distribution of the sand ridge line from north to south has gradually changed from compact to scattered. We also found that the geomorphological dynamics at different positions of the sand ridge line are inconsistent. The north and south wings are eroded on the west side, while the central area is eroded on the east side. Most of the sand ridge line is moving eastward. In addition, the change of sand ridge line is affected by multiple factors such as sediment supply, typhoon, reclamation and laver cultivation.
Keywords: Dongsha Shoal; South Yellow Sea; intertidal sand ridge line; radial sand ridges; remote sensing analysis.