ICON Engineering staff engineer Tyler Rosburg recently published research in the Journal of Hydrology1. Tyler, along with a team from Colorado State University, examined the effects of streamflow data resolution on the computation of sediment yield and subsequent channel design.
The study utilized streamflow and sediment transport measurements from 138 sites across the United States and computed effective discharge, half-load discharge, and sediment yield over long time periods. The study showed that daily-averaged flow data do not adequately represent the magnitude of high stream flows at hydrologically flashy sites. Daily-average stream flow data cause an underestimation of sediment transport and sediment yield (including the half-load discharge) at flashy sites. The study also provides practical charts for estimating and correcting these types of underestimation errors commonly incurred in sediment yield calculations.
The article is available to read here.
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Rosburg, T. T., Nelson, P. A., Sholtes, J. S., & Bledsoe, B. P. (2016). The effect of flow data resolution on sediment yield estimation and channel design. Journal of Hydrology, 538, 429-439. ↩
