After the construction of more than 50,000 dams, the Yangtze (Changjiang) Delta has been evaluated as the highest vulnerable delta in response to anthropogenic climate change, but most of existent assessments did not take adaptive measures and ecosystem feedbacks into consideration, leading to counterintuitive results. In this study, annual to decadal morphological changes in the North Branch were specifically investigated by using time-series satellite images from 1984 to 2018, and controlling factors and mechanism were analyzed in the context of complex human-earth interactions. The North Branch has naturally evolved from a main distributary channel before the 1840s to the present tide-dominated estuary, infilled continuously with a huge amount of sediments. Annually 102 ± 7 Mt. sediment (1958–2009) was estimated to deposit in the North Branch, mostly sourced from erosion of the lower and outer estuarine channel. Recent land reclamation projects have further accelerated channel accretion by promoting tidal sandbars accretion and secondary channels siltation. Totally, 196 km² of intertidal wetland has been reclaimed in the period 1978–2018. Lavish land reclamation was carried out in the 1990s and 2000s to meet for boosting socioeconomic development in Shanghai and abide the law “no net loss in farmland”, producing sharp decrease of saltmarsh and mudflat area. The overexploitation of wetland resources is very short in the Holocene delta life cycle. It is fortunate to see gradually renewing saltmarsh after the new policies have recently been strictly implemented by controlling land reclamation to meet the target of ecological civilization. In the secular human-earth duel, the recent technical and economic development gives human superiority to reduce exposure to natural hazards, but may induce ecological degradation and consequently adverse feedback to coastal societies. Therefore, we stress again to balance sustainable development between human society and coastal ecosystem, coining a new civilization in the Anthropocene.

在建造了50,000多座水坝之后，长江三角洲被认为是应对人为气候变化的最高脆弱三角洲，但是大多数现有评估都没有考虑适应性措施和生态系统反馈，因此得出了违反直觉的结果。 。在这项研究中，利用1984年至2018年的时间序列卫星图像，对北分部的年际到年代际形态变化进行了专门研究，并在复杂的人地相互作用的背景下分析了其控制因素和机制。北支自然地从1840年代之前的主要支流河道演变成如今的以潮汐为主的河口，不断注入大量的沉积物。每年102±7吨 估计沉积物（1958–2009年）沉积在北支，主要来自河口下部和外部河道的侵蚀。最近的土地开垦项目通过促进潮汐沙洲的增加和次要渠道的淤积，进一步加速了渠道的增加。总计196公里²1978-2018年间，潮间带湿地已被开垦。1990年代和2000年代进行了奢华的土地开垦，以促进上海的社会经济发展，并遵守“农田无净损失”的法律，盐沼和滩涂面积急剧减少。在全新世三角洲生命周期中，对湿地资源的过度开发非常短。幸运的是，在最近通过控制土地开垦以实现生态文明的目标而严格执行新政策之后，看到盐沼逐步更新。在长期的人地对决中，最近的技术和经济发展为人类带来了减少自然灾害风险的优势，但可能导致生态退化，从而给沿海社会带来不利的反馈。因此，