Correction factors for estimating suspended sediment export from loess catchments

Abstract

AbstractThis study focuses on problems related to estimating the exact exported suspended sediment quantity and quality from flow‐proportional samples taken at a fixed height at the outlet of a small, agricultural catchment in central Belgium. First, a correction factor is introduced to estimate the real suspended sediment concentration. This factor depends on the stream depth and the grain size distribution of the sediment and is necessary because of the presence of a concentration gradient in the stream. Secondly, water depth is corrected for the sediment volume, and thirdly, the grain size distribution of the exported sediment is corrected. The application of these correction factors leads to a reduction of the estimated total sediment export by 18 per cent (from 4810 Mg over a period of three years to 3930 Mg). Furthermore, the importance of small grain size fractions increases, leading to higher enrichment ratios for the clay fraction and lower ratios for the sand fraction. Suspended sediment export is thus more selective than was previously thought. Due to the overestimation of the sediment export, total phosphorus losses from the catchment are also overestimated by 17 per cent. This paper therefore emphasizes that point sampling of suspended sediment is biased and that a method should be incorporated to correct the sediment export in terms of quantity and quality. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.