Water and Energy Abstracts
  • Year: 2004
  • Volume: 14
  • Issue: 2

103. An Assessment of the Accuracy of the Spatial Integration Method (SIM) forestimating Coarse Bedload Transportin Gravel-Bedded Streams Using Tracers

  • Author:
  • D.A. Sear, M.W.E. Lee, P.A. Carling, R.J. Oakey, M.B. Collins

(Erosion and Sediment Transport Measurement in Rivers: Technological and Methodological Advances (Proceedings of the Oslo Workshop, June 2002), IAHS Publication 283, 2003, pp. 164–171).

Abstract

The accurate estimation of coarse sediment transport rate remains one of the goals of geomorphological and engineering studies of river channels. This paper describes an experiment designed to assess the accuracy of the Spatial Integration Method (SIM) of determining sediment transport rate or yield, using passive tracers. Tracer dispersion results are presented from five events of different magnitude.The study concludes that the SIM is capable of producing estimates of sediment transport rate that correspond with trapped values. Sources of error are quantified and guidance is given on the appropriate methods for deploying passive tracers for the estimation of coarse sediment transport rates.

Keywords

Sediment transport rate, Spatial integration method, Tracers