Estuaries and tidal basins form the transition zones between land and sea. They contain important habitats for flora and fauna and are extensively used by people, providing important functions related to ecology, flood safety and economy. For many of their functions (e.g., navigation), it is important to understand and predict the evolution of channels and shoals, including sedimentation rates and the composition of the sediment bed.

The sediment bed in most estuaries and tidal basins consists of mixtures of sand and mud. Although the behavior of the individual fractions has been studied extensively in the past, the knowledge on the interaction between sand and mud is limited. In the TKI-MUSA project (2020-2024), a consortium joined forces to increase the understanding of the dynamics of sand-mud mixtures in estuaries and tidal basins and to improve the sand-mud modelling tools. The outcomes of MUSA have greatly improved our understanding of sand-mud dynamics, but several topics were also identified that require further investigation.

Therefore, we aim to initiate a second phase of the MUSA project, so-called ‘MUSAII’, in which market parties, government agencies and knowledge institutes will join forces. We aim to improve the set of engineering tools and numerical modelling software that is available for quantitative assessments of sand-mud dynamics, as well as the methods available for quantitative measurements of sand-mud dynamics in the field. The expected deliverables include a global database, improved measurements and instruments, engineering tools and improved formulations in numerical modelling software, reports and publications.

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