Automatic extraction of distributary channel width and reconstruction of sedimentary patterns in modern shallow-water deltas: a case study of Ganjiang Delta
1 School of Geosciences,Yangtze University,Wuhan 430100,China
2 College of Resources and Environment,Yangtze University,Wuhan 430100,China
3 The Seventh Oil Production Plant of Changqing Oilfield,PetroChina,Xi’an 745000,China
4 The Second Oil Production Plant of Changqing Oilfield,PetroChina,Gansu Qingcheng 745100,China
ZHANG Li,born in 1988,is an associate professor. She is mainly engaged in sedimentology,reservoir characterization and modelling. E-mail: zhangx0522@qq.com.
LUO Canying,born in 1999,is a master degree candidate. She is mainly engaged in sedimentology. E-mail: luocanying2823@163.com.
The channel network structure of shallow delta is complex. In the previous studies on the morphological characterization of distributary channels,there was a lack of quantitative data support for the spatial continuity of river width. This paper focuses on the quantitative characterization of channel morphological parameters and studies the spatial continuous variation characteristics of the width of the distributary channels in the Ganjiang Delta,aiming to provide constraints on the spatial variation of channel width for reservoir configuration research,and then improve the reservoir configuration characterization method system. Based on the Google Earth Engine big data cloud computing platform,this paper improves the RivWidthCloud river width extraction algorithm,realizes the automated extraction of continuous width data of the Ganjiang Delta distributary channel,and reveals the spatial continuous variation law of the width of the distributary channel in the shallow delta plains. The results show that: (1)the river width data extracted after algorithm optimization have significant correlation with the measured values(R2=0.84),which verifies the reliability and applicability of this method in river morphology monitoring;(2)the seasonal variation of the width of the main branch of Gan River is significant(the average river width in the dry season is 444.85 m,and the average river width in the rainy season is 650.75 m,an increase of 46%),which is significantly higher than that of the other two tributary channels;(3)There is a significant spatial coupling relationship between channel width and bifurcation frequency: the width of the upstream section of the bifurcation mouth increases sharply,and the width of the secondary channel decreases significantly after bifurcation;(4)According to the continuous channel width curve(the trend line of continuous river width data points),the width data of the distributary channels has an overall decreasing trend towards the downstream of the delta,but still shows an oscillating change with multiple levels of fluctuations. (5)70% of the quasi-central-bar development areas present a width variation pattern of “wide beach head,narrow beach neck,and wider beach tail”,and the corresponding river channel width curve shows a three-stage feature of “high-low-higher”. The continuous river width quantification method provides a new tool for the study of modern delta sedimentation. The law of distributary channels scale variation revealed by it can provide a quantitative basis for fine characterization of the scale of distributary channels,geometric constraints for reservoir architecture modeling,compilation of small-scale sedimentary facies maps.
现代浅水三角洲的几何形态演变特征与分流河道定量化表征的研究一直备受沉积学家关注(Caldwell and Edmonds,2014)。研究逐渐由定性描述向多元定量化表征方向转变(马世忠和张永清,2012;张昌民等,2024)。在这一过程中,为定量获取和分析分流河道的几何形态参数,卫星图像与遥感影像的应用及普及起到了重要作用,增大了观测尺度,并推动了由局部到整体的研究(张昌民等,2010)。孙廷彬等(2015)根据高清卫星影像量取河道宽度,并统计河道的分汊角度、分汊频率及河道的弯曲度,研究分支河道宽度变化规律,揭示浅水三角洲分支河道砂体储集层平面展布规律。谢爽慧等(2025)对现代三角洲的分支河道形态学参数进行定量研究,根据分支河道形态学差异识别三角洲类型。段冬平等(2014)利用现代三角洲沉积的卫星照片获取分流河道与河口坝的定量数据,并分析其平面分布规律,丰富与完善储集层地质知识库。浅水三角洲河道网络结构复杂,前人测量的范围比较局限,缺少连续河道宽度分析,且工作量较大; 测量结果主要是多个局部测量数据的集合,导致分流河道宽度测量数据不够连续,成果数据在空间上连续性较差。对河道宽度的分布规律认识不够深入,尤其缺乏针对分汊区域的河道宽度空间变化认识。近年来,随着遥感技术和地理信息系统(GIS)的发展,谷歌地球引擎(Google Earth Engine,GEE)作为一个集成全球时空范围的卫星影像数据并提供快捷高效的计算能力的云计算平台(Li et al., 2007;Gilvear and Bryant,2016),已成为区域尺度长时序河宽动态变化监测和分析的有效技术工具(Apuraba et al., 2012)。借助遥感图像数据,在没有观测数据的流域中提取河宽的替代方法逐渐发展起来,使分支河道的自动提取及其宽度测量成为可能。其中RivWidthCloud作为一种基于Google Earth Engine(GEE)的自动化算法(Yang et al., 2020),能够从遥感影像中高效提取空间连续河流宽度数据。近几年已经初步应用在分析遥感、水文(谢朝帅等,2024)等领域,但在沉积学领域的应用仍处于起步阶段。
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