Sediment- and hydro-dynamics of the Mekong Delta: From tidal river to continental shelf

This introduction to the special issue entitled, "Sediment- and hydro-dynamics of the Mekong Delta: from tidal river to continental shelf", describes the setting and program design of collaborative studies with integrated field and modeling experiments in 2014-2015, along with associated research in the region. The Mekong River is among the largest on Earth in terms of water discharge, and much of the sediment delivered from the Tibetan Plateau has accumulated in the subaerial and subaqueous components of the Mekong Delta. As a group, the papers in this special issue describe the portion of the system where the sediment source signal is altered along the tidally influenced river and is delivered to the shorelines and continental shelf. The linked studies provide a holistic view of the system, and emphasize the interactions between hydrodynamics and sediment transport processes in sub-environments as sediment makes its way along the path from source to sink.