Human interferences have set off a multitude of morphological responses of the lower Rhine in Germany and the Netherlands. We share insights from thirty years of studies on these responses in the Niederrhein below Xanten and the branches in the delta. Elementary analyses of the 1D Saint-Venant–Exner equations explain the downstream flattening and upstream steepening of the longitudinal bed profile due to retrogressive erosion in response to river training, bend cut-offs and sediment mining. Three reasons make a 2D approach necessary for modelling the seemingly 1D problem of large-scale morphological response: (i) transverse variations in bed sediment composition, (ii) sediment division at river bifurcations, and (iii) the possibility that non-erodible layers in bends cause either erosion or sedimentation of the longitudinal bed profile. The Pannerdense Kop and IJsselkop bifurcations are in a state of quasi-equilibrium, essentially unstable but developing slowly. Considerable spatiotemporal variations in the sediment composition of the riverbed surface pose a challenge to stabilizing the longitudinal bed profile by matching gradients in flow velocity to gradients in bed sediment composition. As these variations form a major knowledge gap, we recommend research on the state and dynamics of sediment size and layer structure in the upper metres of the riverbed.
Mosselman et al. (2026) studied this question.