Sedimentation

impacts
many
aspects of the environment soil
erosion, water quality, water supply,
flood
control, river regulation,
reservoir
lifespan,
groundwater
table, irrigation, navigation, fishing,
tourism, etc. It has attracted
increasing attention from the public
and engineers in the field.
Deposit and scour are common in rivers
because of the difference between sediment
load and the real sediment transportation
capacity of flow. Deposition in river channels
raises the elevation of
River beds. Consequently, it enhances the
water
Level at the same discharge, and increases
the occurrence and the damage of floods.
On the other hand, scour brings some safety
problems for river training works, lowers
water levels, and therefore affects water
supply and navigation along rivers.
Erosion can be caused by the kinetic energy
of raindrops impinging on the soil surface
and by the mechanical force of surface
runoff. Surface runoff is caused by heavy
rainfall and snow water from spring thaw in
the natural or artificial hydrographic
network.
Erosion caused by water is the most
common, widespread and harmful type of
soil erosion in the world. The main
categories of this type of erosion are surface
erosion and channel (or gully) erosion.
SEDIMENT TRANSPORT IN RIVERS
Bed material load and wash load
Sediment is classified as either bed load or
suspended load according to the patterns
and laws of movement. It can also be
classified as bed material load and wash
load according to the particle size, its origin
and effect in fluvial processes.
The ratios of fine to coarse sediment in river
bed material sediment are quite different.
Sediment in river beds is often (but not
always) composed of much coarser and
much less fine sediment than moving
sediment. There is always an exchange
between coarse sediment and bed material
during transport.
Incoming coarse sediment may originate
directly from the river bed of an upstream

reach. It is directly supplied from the bed

and therefore is called bed material load. In
contrast, fine sediment, eroded and washed
from upland watersheds, is transported
through a channel over a long distance and
is scarcely ever deposited in the channel;
therefore, it is called wash load. Thus, the
amount of coarse sediment carried by flow
depends on sediment transport capacity and
exhibits a well-defined relationship with the
flow
discharge.
In
contrast,
the
concentration of fine sediment depends only
on the supply of sediment from the
upstream reach, and no obvious relationship
with flow discharge is found.
Bed load, saltation and suspended load
It should be pointed out that only bed
material load, not wash load, is discussed
here.
At low flow, although some sediment moves
in suspension, most sediment particles
move in the form of sliding, rolling and
saltation in a zone close to the bed surface
with a thickness of 1 to 3 times the particle
diameter. Such sediment is called bedload.
This zone is called the bed surface layer.
With increasing flow velocity, some particles
are caught by turbulent eddies. Entering the
main flow region, these particles are
transported downstream by flow. Sediment
supported by turbulent eddies and moving
downstream
in
suspension
is
called
suspended load.
With a high level of shear stress, however,
not only can the particles enter into motion
on the bed surface, but also those in the
subsurface layer of the bed can do so as
well. This motion penetrates further into the
bed in response to further increases in shear
stress. The velocity of the moving sediment
is significantly
smaller in a deeper bed. The sediment that
moves in such a way
is called the laminated load.
Relative importance of bed load and
suspended load
The relative importance of bed load and
suspended load depends
on sediment size and flow velocity. For the
same composition of
bed sediment, sediment slides, rolls or
moves in saltation of flow
velocity is low. As velocity increases, part of
the sediment is
carried into the main flow zone and
becomes suspended load. The
rest remains in the bed surface layer and
moves as bed load, but

the thickness of the bed surface layer is

augmented. Following still
further increases in flow velocity, the
suspended load is greater,
and it exceeds the bed load. In general, for
ordinary river flows,

sediment coarser than a certain diameter

moves mainly as bed
load, and sediment finer than that diameter
moves mostly in
suspension.