Data Repository Sand Banks SW North Sea

Sand banks in the SW North Sea are heavily influenced by the relationship between the critical shear stress of the sediment and the shear stress induced by the water motions. The data shows how the sand bank distribution is bounded to certain shear stress conditions. It appears that the ratio between the maximum bed shear stress and the critical shear stress of the surface sediments (simply referred to as shear stress ratio) has to exceed a threshold of nine to launch sand bank formation to a greater extend.
Previous prediction models have suggested that sand banks form when the shear stress of the water motions exceeds the critical shear stress of the sediment. Subsequently, these findings can improve further predictions of sand bank formation.

The dataset contains:

- Shear stress ratio as a tif-raster file
The shear force ratio was calculated using several raster datasets provided by the Helmholtz Centre of Geesthacht.

- Current induced shear stress / critical shear stress - ratio
Again, values were calculated using datasets from the Helmholtz Centre of Geesthacht.

- Sand bank shapefile