Field measurements of hydrodynamics and sediment transport at intertidal areas in the Dutch Wadden Sea

Abstract

Two field measurement campaigns were carried out in the Dutch Wadden Sea in winter 2023–2024 and in early spring 2025. The campaigns were designed to understand and quantify sediment transport and exchange at two different spatial scales: on larger scale between two adjacent tidal basins and on smaller scale between individual channels and shoals. The presented dataset contains point measurements at five locations in the first campaign and eight locations in the second campaign, including (1) near-bed flow velocities and velocity profiles, (2) wave characteristics, (3) suspended sediment concentrations and transport rates, and (4) local bed level dynamics, as well as data on the sediment composition of (intertidal) seabed samples. Measurements were collected simultaneously for a period of six to eight weeks in both campaigns, although some instruments collected data for only four weeks in the Winter 2023–2024 campaign. This article documents the field observations and data processing, and highlights potential applications. The dataset is collected for a better understanding of sediment dynamics in the Dutch Wadden Sea, but also to advance our understanding of channel-shoal sediment exchange mechanisms in general. The field data enables the investigation of fundamental processes controlling sediment dynamics in tidal systems, such as tide- and wind-driven flows and transport, shallow water wave dynamics, wave and current-induced resuspension, and sediment bed stability. The data are publicly available in three versions (raw, filtered and tailored datasets) at 4TU Centre for Research Data at https://doi.org/10.4121/bbb85feb-15f9-476f-9598-b6509392117d.