Human impacts on hudson river morphology and sediments: A result of changing uses and interests

Since the beginning of European colonization, the Hudson River Estuary has been a focus of commerce and transportation in the northeastern United States. Varying demands caused by changing technology and increasing population have resulted in significant modifications of large sections of the Hudson River shoreline including channel constriction, filling, relocating, stabilization, and the construction of piers and docks. These modifications resulted in substantial changes of estuarine flow, sediment transport, and deposition patterns in the Hudson River. In this chapter we compare historic documents with modern data from the Hudson River Estuary. Using examples from various parts of the estuary we demonstrate the impact of human modifications on bottom morphology and sediment distribution and how these modifications reflect the changing priorities in the use of the Hudson River.