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Closing a sediment budget for a reconfigured reach of the Provo River, Utah, United States
Author(s) -
Erwin Susannah O.,
Schmidt John C.,
Wheaton Joseph M.,
Wilcock Peter R.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/2011wr011035
Subject(s) - hydrology (agriculture) , sediment , sedimentary budget , erosion , channel (broadcasting) , fluvial , flood myth , flux (metallurgy) , deposition (geology) , geology , digital elevation model , sediment transport , sinuosity , environmental science , geomorphology , geography , geotechnical engineering , remote sensing , archaeology , materials science , engineering , structural basin , electrical engineering , metallurgy
We quantified all components of a fluvial sediment budget for a discrete flood on an aggrading gravel bed river. Bed load transport rates were measured at the upstream and downstream ends of a 4 km study area on the Provo River, Utah, during a dam‐controlled flood. We also collected high‐resolution measurements of channel topography before and after the controlled flood for the entire reach. Topographic uncertainty in the digital elevation models (DEM) was characterized using a spatially variable approach. The net sediment flux provided unambiguous indication of storage. Sediment input to the reach (319 m 3 ) exceeded output (32 m 3 ), producing a net accumulation of approximately 290 m 3 . The difference between the scour and fill was also positive (470 m 3 ), but uncertainty in the topographic differencing was larger than the observed net storage. Thus, the budget would have been indeterminate if based on morphologic data alone. Although topographic differencing was not sufficiently accurate to indicate net storage, it was able to demonstrate that internal erosion was a larger sediment source than the net sediment flux. The magnitude of total erosion (1454 m 3 ) and deposition (1926 m 3 ) was considerably larger than net change in storage, showing that internal sources and sinks were the dominant driver of channel change. The findings provide guidance for the development of sediment budgets in settings in which one must choose between a morphological approach and the direct measurement of sediment flux.