Particulate flow at the mouth of the Soummam watershed (Algeria)

Abstract

In Algeria, the particulate flow in rivers is poorly quantified in the wadi due to the absence and the non‐standardization of the acquisition of measurement data. Most studies on particulate flows are quantified from time series of hydrometric stations. The present study is based on weekly sampling of water at the mouth of the Soummam watershed for the hydrological year 2011/2012. The sediment flux is analyzed from measurements of suspended solids (SS). The determination coefficients between the annual and seasonal “ liquid flow–solid flow‐” relationships vary from 75% to 82%, respectively. During this period, the watershed of 9125 km2 has provided a solid input estimated to 4.9 × 106 t yr−1, hence a specific flow of 538 t km−2 yr−1. In general, autumn floods were characterized by high concentrations of SS, which varies from 820 to 1275 mg L−1. The most important sediment transport volumes were observed during the period of December to February, this period is characterized by strong turbulence, due to extreme flows, favoring the largest volumes of solid transport. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 204–211, 2016