ON THE NUMBER OF FRACTIONS TO COMPUTE TRANSPORT OF SEDIMENT MIXTURES

1 INTRODUCTIONMany hydro-momhological mathematical models neglect the innuence of river bed maerialheterogeneity and its time and space changes during transport and related erosion/dePosition processes. Inthese models a rePresentative diameter of the river bed grain-size distribution (for examPle d5o) isspecified as initial data in each comPutational point of the modeled domain. Different d5o can be assignedto each ghd point but temPoral changes in bed material gradation cannot be simula…     

EVOLUTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HYPER－CONCENTRATED FLOW IN BRAIDED CHANNEL OF THE YELLOW RIVER

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TRANSPORT OF THE SUSPENDED SEDIMENT IN THE CHANGJIANG ESTUARY

The Changjiang River is characterized by the enormous volume of runoff and the great amount of sediment load with remarkable seasonal variation. The annual runoff sometimes is respondent to the amount of sediment load, and sometimes not. The amount of monthly sediment load after the month of the maximum runoff is larger than those before the month. The sediment concentration and net quantity of sediment transport in the vicinity of the river mouth varies greatly in time between the ebb and flood, spring and neap, and dry seasons and flood seasons. The three bifurcations also have differences in concentration and net quantity in space. Even in the same bifurcation they have differences in and out of the sand bar. At present, the North Channel is the main passage for water and sediment load emptying into the sea from the Changjiang River. More than 50 percent of the sediments from the river basin are deposited nearby the South Branch entrance and the main depositional area is situated in subaqueous delta off the South Channel. Between 122°30'E and 123°E is an important boundary for eastward sediment dispersion from which the suspended sediment are dispersed towards the east by south.     

SEDIMENT MANAGEMENT IN NANQIN RESERVOIR

In order to preserve the storage capacity of the Nanqin Reservoir for long-term service, several remedial measures have been worked out: (a) measures to control the upstream extension of backwater deposits and to prevent gravel bed load from entering into the reservoir, so that no armour layer will be formed; (b) sediment sluicing by density current to reduce deposits of suspended load; (c) periodical sediment flushing by emptying reservoir to restore the effective storage capacity. In addition, conceptions of flood plain elevation in reservoir, storage volume required in the routing of turbid flow (density flow), the storage capacity that can be restored after being lost by deposition, and the storage volume for sediment regulation are also discussed.     

Bed load transport during rising and falling stages on two small streams

Bed load transport rates were measured with continuously recording pit samplers on two small gravel-bed streams in the Goodwin Creek Research Watershed, northern Mississippi, U.S.A. When transport samples were grouped according to whether the stage was rising or falling, significant differences in mean bed load transport rates were found at nearly all flow strengths. At higher flow strengths, mean bed load transport rates were greater during rising stages than during falling stages. The greater transport rates measured during rising stages may be caused by a lag in the formation and destruction of bed roughness elements. One of the streams also showed evidence for greater transport rates for low flows as the stage declined. This may be caused by differences in the stability of the bed material at the beginning and at the end of a transport event.     

An experimental study of sapped drainage network development

In a basin developed on a stream table, effluent subsurface flow supported a channel network that evolved by a combination of headward growth, lateral widening and divide decay. The area occupied by the developing network increased with time. Circularity was used to characterize network evolution which occurred in three phases (initiation, extension and abstraction). Basin sediment discharge declined exponentially with time. Pronounced quasi-cyclic variability was superimposed upon this general trend. Some of the variability was directly linked to changes in the amount of sediment supplied to the channel. The variation of mean network sediment yield (mean sediment discharge scaled by network area) with time adequately described the general decline in sediment discharge as the network evolved.     

Floodplain storage of mine tailings in the belle fourche river system: A sediment budget approach

Arsenic-contaminated mine tailings that were discharged into Whitewood Creek at Lead, South Dakota, from 1876 to 1978, were deposited along the floodplains of Whitewood Creek and the Belle Fourche River. The resulting arsenic-contaminated floodplain deposit consists mostly of overbank sediments and filled abandoned meanders along White-wood Creek, and overbank and point-bar sediments along the Belle Fourche River. Arsenic concentrations of the contaminated sediments indicate the degree of dilution of mine tailings by uncontaminated alluvium. About 13 per cent of the 110 × 10⁶ Mg of mine tailings that were discharged at Lead were deposited along the Whitewood Creek floodplain. Deposition of mine tailings near the mouth of Whitewood Creek was augmented by an engineered structure. About 29 per cent of the mine tailings delivered by Whitewood Creek were deposited along the Belle Fourche River floodplain. About 60 per cent of that sediment is contained in overbank deposits. Deposition along a segment of the Belle Fourche River was augmented by rapid channel migration. The proportions of contaminated sediment stored along Whitewood Creek and the Belle Fourche River are consistent with sediment storage along the floodplains of perennial streams in other, similar sized watersheds.     

Delivery of upper-basin sediment to the lower neuse river,North Carolina,U.S.A.

Extensive storage of upper-basin Piedmont sediment and apparent low sediment supply to streams in lower-basin Coastal Plain areas generates questions as to the source of alluvium in lower reaches of rivers of the U.S. Atlantic drainage. This was investigated on the Neuse River, North Carolina, using a mineralogical indicator of sediment source areas. The utility of mica flakes for discriminating between Piedmont and non-Piedmont sources of sediment in the lower Coastal Plain reaches of the Neuse was established on the basis of an examination of the U.S. National Soils Database and of 26 soil surveys of the North Carolina Coastal Plain. From the Neuse River estuary to 48 km upstream there are no mica flakes in floodplain soils or in river bank and channel shelf sediments. Mica flakes become more common upstream. This suggests that a very small proportion of the sediment eroded in the Piedmont portion of the watershed is delivered to the river mouth. The small amounts which presumably do reach the lower Coastal Plain are so diluted by Coastal Plain-derived alluvium that no Piedmont origin can be discerned. This demonstrates a dominantly Coastal Plain source and underscores the importance of storage and discontinuous transport in fluvial sediment systems. More importantly, results suggest that upper- and lower-basin sediment dynamics are not only non-linearly related, but may be virtually decoupled.     

The role of wind direction in eolian transport on a narrow sandy beach

Comparison of eolian transport during five high-velocity wind events over a 29 day period on a narrow estuarine beach in Delaware Bay, New Jersey, USA, reveals the temporal variability of transport, due to changes in direction of wind approach. Mean wind speed measured 6 m above the dune crest for the five events ranged from 8·5 to 15·9 ms^?1. Mean wind direction was oblique to the shoreline (63° from shore-normal) during one event but was within 14° of shore-normal during the other events. Eolian transport is greatest during low tide and rising tide, when the beach source area is widest and when drying of surface sediments occurs. The quantity of sediment caught in a vertical trap for the five events varied from a total of 0·07 to 113·73 kgm^?1. Differences in temperature, relative humidity and moisture and salt content of surficial sediments were slight. Mean grain sizes ranged from 0·33 to 0·58 mm, causing slight differences in threshold shear velocity, but shear velocities exceeded the threshold required for transport during all events. Beach width, measured normal to the shoreline, varied from 15·5 to 18·0 m; beach slope differed by 0·5°. The oblique wind during one event created a source width nearly double the width during other days. Beach slope, measured in the direction of the wind, was less than half as steep as the slope measured normal to the shoreline. The amount of sand trapped during the oblique wind was over 20 times greater than any other event, even those with higher shear velocities. The ability of the beach surface to supply grains to the air stream is limited on narrow beaches, but increased source width, due to oblique wind approach, can partially overcome limitations of surface conditions on the beach.     

Revising the paradigm of tidal analysis – the uses of non-stationary data

Surface elevation and current records contain non-tidal variance, often dismissed as noise. The processes responsible for the non-tidal component may also modulate the tidal signal, altering its strength and frequency structure. Because of their manner of generation and propagation, internal tides are inherently irregular. The non-stationary character of these and other tidal processes provides an integral and useful property of tidal records, because it provides an opportunity to obtain insights into tidal dynamics and the interaction of tidal and non-tidal processes. It is, moreover, productive to use multiple approaches in analyzing coastal and estuarine tidal processes so that both the time-varying and average frequency content are determined. Only by confronting the causes of non-stationary behaviour in this way can some of the remaining challenges in tidal analysis and prediction be overcome, e.g. shelf and estuarine currents, river tides, internal tides, tide-surge interactions and tidally influenced ecological processes. Several examples illustrate the utility of non-stationary tidal analysis methods.Responsible Editor: Jens Kappenberg