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Long‐term distributions of annual sediment yields from small watersheds
Author(s) -
Van Sickle John
Publication year - 1981
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/wr017i003p00659
Subject(s) - watershed , sediment , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental science , term (time) , yield (engineering) , physical geography , geology , geography , geomorphology , physics , materials science , geotechnical engineering , quantum mechanics , machine learning , computer science , metallurgy
Annual sediment yields from small (<20 km 2 ) mountain watersheds in the northwestern United States are approximately log normally distributed over time. Stochastic sediment yield models, based on brief, infrequent transport events, reproduce the log normal property. Observed cumulative distributions of annual yields from several Pacific Northwest drainages also appear to be log normal. The property gives a statistical basis for interpreting annual yield data. For example, impacts of watershed disturbance should be assessed by median rather than mean annual yield.