Sediment Transport Measurements in Gravel River

A need for estimates of sediment transport rates in gravel-bed rivers prompted a field study of methods for measuring total sediment discharge. Measurements were carried out on the Elbow River at Bragg Creek, Alberta, during the summer flood periods of 1967, 1968, and 1969. Suspended load was measured directly by sampling. Bed-load was measured directly by sampling. Bed-load was measured by two types of sampler, herein designated the VUV (Hungarian type) and Basket type, respectively, and the results were compared to those obtained by measuring volumetrically the refilling rate of a large pit excavated in the river bed. This paper presents sediment-discharge rating curves and compares popular bed-load formulas, derived from flume measurements, to a natural gravel-bed river. A practical method is proposed for estimating bed-material discharge, utilizing field observations in conjunction with graphical correlations recently developed from an extensive analysis of flume data.