Ambient Suspended Sediment Concentration and Turbidity Levels. Long Term ResourceMonitoring Program

摘要

The temporal variation of suspended sediment concentration and turbidity is animportant component of the riverine environment. The maximum rate of discrete volumetric sample collection for laboratory determination of sediment concentration is one sample per minute for the field data collection on the effects of navigation on the Upper Mississippi River System. In an effort to obtain truly continuous measurements, another set of intakes and pumps were used to obtain and record continuous turbidity data while discrete samples were being collected. Ambient suspended sediment concentration samples and turbidity values were collected continuously for a three-hour period to measure variability over time. A turbidity-concentration correlation was also developed and used to estimate sediment concentrations for a point at which only turbidity was measured.