Sediment Measurement Techniques: A. Fluvial Sediment

A description is given of modern techniques and equipment used to plan and make sedimentation measurements on natural streams. First typical examples are given of sedimentation characteristics of streams such as distribution of sediment with distance above the bed, variation of concentration with time and position in the stream cross section for the purpose of illustrating some of the problems of sediment measurement. Equipment available is then described for obtaining suspended load concentration, bed load discharge and bed sediment samples. Next, the planning is outlined for making measurements at a cross section to obtain the sedimenmt discharge of a stream and the procedure is presented for making the necessary calculations based on measured data. Finally the method of obtaining long-time records of sediment discharge is considered. This includes the determination of the frequency of making measurements in order to achieve the desired accuracy. The report is intended for the use of engineers not familiar with sediment measurement techniques on streams.