Suspended sediment transport dynamics in rivers: Multi-scale drivers of temporal variation

Abstract

Suspended sediment is a natural part of river systems and plays an essential role in structuring the landscape, creating ecological habitats and transporting nutrients. It is also a common management problem, where alterations to sediment quantity and quality negatively impact ecological communities, increase flood hazard and shorten the lifespan of infrastructure. To address these challenges and develop appropriate sustainable management strategies, we need a thorough understanding of sediment sources, pathways and transport dynamics and the drivers that underlie spatial and temporal variability in suspended sediment transport in rivers. However, research to date has not sufficiently addressed the temporal complexity of sediment transport processes, which is limiting our ability to disentangle the hydro-meteorological, catchment, channel and anthropogenic drivers of suspended sediment transport in rivers. This review critically evaluates previously published work on suspended sediment dynamics to demonstrate how the interpretation of sediment sources and pathways is influenced by the temporal scale and methodology of the study. To do this, the review (i) summarizes the main drivers of temporal variation in suspended sediment transport in rivers; (ii) critically reviews the common empirical approaches used to analyze and quantify sediment sources and loads, and their capacity to account for temporal variations; (iii) applies these findings to recent case studies to illustrate how method and timescale affect the interpretation of suspended sediment transport dynamics; and finally (iv) synthesizes the findings of the review into a set of guidelines for a multi-timescale approach to sediment regime characterization. By recognizing a priori that study design and temporal scale have an impact on the interpretation of SS dynamics and employing methods that address these issues, future research will be better able to identify the drivers of suspended sediment transport in rivers, improve sediment transport modelling, and propose effective, sustainable solutions to sediment management problems.

Ability of Two Dam Fine-Grained Sediments to be Used in Cement Industry as Raw Material for Clinker Production and as Pozzolanic Additional Constituent of Portland-Composite Cement

“…It can be done by (i) chemical titration protocols (such as the Frattini test, the Chapelle test and the saturated lime test), (ii) TGA (following the mass loss in lime-pozzolan pastes due to transformation around 550 °C of Ca(OH) 2 into CaO) or (iii) XRD (following the intensities and areas of the main peaks corresponding to Ca(OH) 2 , for instance in lime-pozzolan pastes).…”

“…Sediment yield is spatially and temporally variable [1]. Several factors affect spatial and temporal variations such as geological, topographical and hydro-meteorological features as well as human interventions [2]. Temporal variations are both annual and interannual [3].…”

Evaluation of a simple, inexpensive, in situ sampler for measuring time‐weighted average concentrations of suspended sediment in rivers and streams

“…Therefore, it is likely that the average particle size distribution of the sample collected by the PASS and Phillips samplers are representative of the particle size distribution of suspended sediment in Loders Creek during the two sampled events. It should be noted that the Phillips sampler could lose a significant amount of sediment mass (possibly up to 50%) at higher flows (greater than 0.6 m s −1 ), which is not uncommon in most fluvial environments (Droppo & Ongley, ; Horowitz et al, ; Janes et al, ; Ongley et al, ; Vercruysse, Grabowski, & Rickson, ). If the sediment is equally removed from the sampler, this may not adversely affect the particle size distribution of the sample, as demonstrated in Section ; however, it will bias the sample mass collected, thus making the Phillips sampler unsuitable for measuring suspended sediment concentrations.…”

Quantifying bed‐related suspended load in gravel bed rivers through an analysis of the bedload‐suspended load relationship

“…Suspended sediment transport is associated with important socioeconomic stakes, such as nutrient and pollutant transport included in fine aggregated particles, alteration of spawning habitat by riverbed clogging, mainchannel obstruction by vegetation growth in calibrated rivers and reservoir siltation [Kondolf et al, 2014;Owens et al, 2005;Vercruysse et al, 2017;Walling et al, 2003]. It differs from bedload, which is the fraction transported over short distances close to the bed by rolling and sliding.…”