Nonlinear and abnormal relationship between turbidity and suspended solids concentration in mountainous rivers: A case study of the Lai Chi Wo river in Hong Kong, China

Abstract

Suspended solids concentration (SSC) in a river is closely relevant to river water turbidity. Investigation of their relationship in this study is accompanied by observed turbidity and SSC values, which were obtained from the testing results of water samples and monitored conditions in streamflow. The water samples were collected from two observation stations with a broad range of sediment concentrations in the Lai Chi Wo catchment in Hong Kong, China. We classified the target rainfall events into single-peak event type and dual-peak event type for a distinguished discussion of the relationship between SSC and turbidity in this study. At a finer classification, each event is separated into defined processes for the analysis, where two main processes refer to the periods that SSC rises from a normal state to a peak state first and the followed periods that SSC recesses to ordinary status gradually. It is advised by the analysis results that the estimation of SSC through turbidity values should be based on the same rainfall types for the upstream station. However, the results show that the classification of rainfall types does not need to take downstream areas into consideration. Furthermore, current research implies that the individual established connections between SSC and turbidity value at different stages (particularly referring to the rising period and recessing period) could be applied to estimate SSC at the same station via continuous turbidity values for both this and other ungauged stations with similar topographical features in the future. Meanwhile, this research approach provides new insight exploring various behaviors of sediments at different stages during an integral rainfall event. A comparison of distinguished performances of sediment during corresponding stages in a rainfall event makes contributions to diverse relationship between SSC and turbidity in the mountainous river.