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Abstract: This paper deals with the seasonal changes of the tidal flat along the north bank of Hangzhou Bay. Analysis of a one year set of weekly measured tidal flat profiles from Jinhuigang to Caojing shows that the tidal flat on the north bank of Hangzhou Bay accretes during winter and erodes during summer. To identify the characteristic patterns of the tidal flat spatio-temporal variations, Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) is applied on the tidal flat profile data. The results show that most of the variations of the tidal flat profiles can be represented by three eigenfunctions corresponding to the three largest eigenvalues. The first eigenfunction represents the long-term variation of the tidal flat over a year, the second eigenfunction represents the seasonal changes of the tidal flat resulting from the seasonal variations in wave regime, the third eigenfunction indicates sediment exchanges between different parts of the tidal flat associated with the variations of sea level.