Sediment Transport

Transport of suspended sediments (SS) within a river is a temporally dynamic process, which requires in-situ monitoring to capture the range of temporal scales involved in suspended sediment dynamics. These sediments affect the water quality, as they act as hindrance in the underwater optical path. This obstruction of light in water is called turbidity and is a proxy for SS concentration. The relation between turbidity and SS concentration is highly influenced by composition, size and density of SS, which are in turn influenced by mean flow patterns. As a result, a new empirical relation between turbidity and SS concentration has to be stablished at each new site. This study deals with optical in-situ sensors to characterise SS properties at high frequency [organic and mineral fractions, particle size distribution] to better understand the relationship between turbidity and SS concentration and ultimately improve the quantification of SS fluxes.