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Uniform Bottom Shear Stress And Equilibrium Hyposometry Of Intertidal Flats, Carl T. Friedrichs

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Hypsometry is the distribution of horizontal surface area with respect to elevation. Recent observations of tidal flat morphology have correlated convex hypsometry with large tide ranges, long‐term accretion and/or low wave activity. Concave hypsometry, in turn, has been correlated with small tide ranges, long‐term erosion and/or high wave activity. The present study demonstrates that this empirical variation in tidal flat hypsometry is consistent with a simple morphodynamic model which assumes tidal flats to be at equilibrium if maximum bottom shear stress (τ) is spatially uniform. Two general cases are considered: (i) dominance of τ by tidal currents, where τ is …