Sediment in streams
Particle size measurement Coarse fraction (>2mm) Wolman pebble counts Digital image processing Sieving (>0.063mm) Fine fraction (<2mm) Sieving Settling Hydrometer Laser diffraction
Particle Size Distributions Usually constructed by weight fractions retained in different sieves OR in different diameter intervals assuming density invariance. KEY DIAMETER BENCHMARKS D50 – median D84 and D95 – representative coarse fractions
PSD sorting Here expressed in terms of standard deviation of phi values. Note: sorting is the opposite of grading!
Sample data Sometimes particle-size axis is flipped
The go-to resource
Types of alluvial stream channels (Montgomery-Buffington, 1997 & 1998) Cascade Step-pool Plane-bed Pool-riffle Dune-ripple
Schumm classification
Rosgen’s classification system
Channel Evolution models Schumm, Hupp, Simon, etc
Channel-forming discharge Biedenham, et al., 2000