Title: Performance of bed load transport equations in mountain gravel-bed rivers: a re-analysis

Author: Barry, Jeffrey J.; Buffington, John M.; King, John G.; Goodwin, Peter

Date: 2006

Source: In: Proceedings of the Eighth Federal Interagency Sedimentation Conference; 2006 April 2-6; Reno, NV. [Place of publication unknown]: [U.S. Subcommitte on Sedimentation]. 8 p

Description: Our recent examination of bed load transport data from mountain gravel-bed rivers in the western United States shows that the data can be fit by a simple power function of discharge, with the coefficient being a function of drainage area (a surrogate for basin sediment supply) and the exponent being a function of supply-related channel armoring (transport capacity in excess of sediment supply) (Barry et al., 2004). We also compared the performance of our proposed equation to that of five commonly used bed load transport equations. Here, we explore the sensitivity of equation performance to differences in how the statistical assessment of error is parameterized. We also consider the performance of these bed load transport equations in terms of geomorphic significance. Over the past two decades numerous studies have assessed the performance of various equations for predicting bed load transport; however, these analyses have been based on paired observations of measured and predicted bed load transport, the majority of which were taken at low flows (including Barry et al. (2004)). Consequently, formula performance is weighted toward low discharges which may not have geomorphic significance. Here, we consider equation performance at a number of gravel-bed rivers in mountain basins of the western United States in terms of the accuracy with which the equations are able to predict the effective discharge.

Key Words: bed load transport, gravel beds, rivers, equations, discharge

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Citation

Barry, Jeffrey J.; Buffington, John M.; King, John G.; Goodwin, Peter  2006.  Performance of bed load transport equations in mountain gravel-bed rivers: a re-analysis  In: Proceedings of the Eighth Federal Interagency Sedimentation Conference; 2006 April 2-6; Reno, NV. [Place of publication unknown]: [U.S. Subcommitte on Sedimentation]. 8 p.


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