Morphogenetic processes of the Yellow River Delta and the Laizhou Bay, Bohai Sea, China, have to be described by the interrelation of riverine sediment supply, relative sea level change and the effects of wind driven waves and nearshore currents. The research area is regarded a natural laboratory of the development of river dominated coastal zone with interfering natural and anthropogenic forcing factors. As well for the historical hindcast as for future projections of the morphogenetic coastal processes the Dynamic Equilibrium Shore Model (DESM) can be applied. This model generalizes the standard Bruun rule model and generates Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) scenarios on decadal to centennial time scales for the geological past and future. The basic concept is a dynamic equilibrium coastal profile evolution in adaption to the sediment budget in a spatially three-dimensional domain. By adding parameters to account for sediment mass contribution from riverine sediment flux, the DESM can be used to explore coastal morphological equilibrium states responding to sediment budget changes for river-dominated coastal zones. For the parameterization historical maps of the southern Bohai Sea have been applied to reconstruct paleo-coastlines for the 19th century for the comparison with a modern DEM. Gauge measurements provided the data for an estimation of trends in sea level change for the Laizhou Bay on the decadal scale. Modern sea level rise together with reduced riverine sediment supply caused by anthropogenic activities such as damming up-streams may change the depositional environment at the Yellow River Delta and related areas of the Laizhou Bay from river dominated (progrational) to wave dominated (regressive) environment.
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