Prediction of Sediment Concentration in Rivers by Recursive Least-Squares and Linear Minimum Variance Estimators

Abstract

AbstractPeaks of suspended sediment concentration in rivers appear before peak discharge appears. The observation of discharge is usually done in many rivers for river management, but the suspended sediment concentration is not always observed. The suspended sediment concentration is expressed by a sediment-rating curve over a long period of time. Coefficients in the sediment-rating curve are time varying. The time variation of the suspended sediment concentration is predicted by the sediment-rating curve with the recursive least-squares and the linear minimum variance estimators. Because the sediment-rating curve is linearized by the logarithmic transformation, we can apply the simple linear models such as recursive least-squares and linear minimum variance estimators for the prediction of the suspended sediment concentration. These methods indicate that the coefficients in the sediment-rating curve are time varying. These methods can estimate sediment discharge by identifying the coefficients in the sed...