A Verification Study on a Reservoir Sediment Deposition Model

Abstract

ABSTRACT THE THE USDA-SEA Watershed Research Unit in Col-umbia, Missouri, has been monitoring three agricul-tural reservoirs for over 7 years. Data from two of these reservoirs, Callahan Reservoir and Bailey Reservoir, were used in a verification study with the DEPOSITS model. The DEPOSITS model is a conceptual design model for predicting the sediment trapping performance of small impoundments. A brief outline of the model is presented. The model gave good estimates of the per-formance of two reservoirs during the 13 storm events us-ed in the study. An alternative predictive method, which is commonly used, gave much poorer estimates of the performance of the reservoirs. A method for developing the inflow sedimentgraphs to the reservoirs is incor-porated in the DEPOSITS model, and gave good esti-mates of the actual inflow sedimentgraphs for these two reservoirs.