Review of Sorting Out Sand and Gravel: Sediment Transport and Deposition in Sand-Gravel Bed Rivers by Maarten Kleinhans

Abstract

Bedload transport in sand and gravel mixtures is difficult to describe because two media, sand and gravel, are interacting in a complex set of processes. Both materials can enhance as well as delay each other’s entrainment and transport. As a results, equations commonly employed to compute entrainment and transport of either sand or gravel alone are not applicable to sand-gravel mixtures. In his book, Maarten Kleinhans observes, measures, and analyzes processes of sand-gravel interactions in subaqueous dunes; he offers a modified Meyer-Peter and Muller transport equation and develops a model for predicting sediment stratification and bedload transport caused by dune development and decay during flow events. Given the title of the book, one might expect a wide-ranging, general treatment of rivers with sand-gravel beds. However, the book addresses only large rivers where sand content is high and gravel particles are small, and focuses on how both interact in the formation and propagation of subaqueous dunes. The interaction