Assessing suspended sediment fluxes with acoustic Doppler current profilers: case study from large rivers in Russia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Case studies of ADCP applications. a) General sketch map: blue circles – Arctic rivers (1 – Ob, 2 – Yenisey, 3 – Lena, 4 – Kolyma), yellow circle − 5 – Selenga River; red circle − 6 – Moscow River and its’ tributaries; b) local stream reaches maps: location of the cross-sections for the case studies 1–4 – orange lines; for the case study 5 – green dots; for the case study 6 – red dots.

Figure 1. (continued).

Table 1. Summary of hydraulic and sediment measurements of the studied rivers used in this study.

River	Period of measurement	Water runoff, m^3/s	Max depth, m	River width,m	Mean depth, m	Mean water velocity, m^2/s	Measured suspended load (R), kg/s	Mean Rouse number	Suspended sediments mean grain size, mm	Calculate bed load (G), kg/s (5)-(7)	R/(R+G)	Mean water slope, m/km
Yenisey	04.06–15.05.2019	>90,000	30–65	393–1,823	16–28	0.46–1.82	318–9,275	0.13–0.2	0.06–0.16	571–608	0.55–0.85	1.96
Kolyma	27.06–15.07.2019; 30.06.2020–10.07.2020	8,164–8,805	12–16	2,801–3,091	6–7	0.48–1	490–556	0.24–0.3	0.034	1561	0.25	0.5
Ob	21.09–24.09.2018; 27.06–05.07.2019	11,964–34,022	21–28	1,720–2,257	10–13	0.58–1.07	1,478–2,736	0.21–0.49	0.09–0.22	261–1,865	0.85–0.93	0.92–1.93
Selenga	27.07.2018–31.07.2018	274–2,675	2–10	70–399	2–3	0.54–2	59–564	0.81–2.76	0.01–0.02	1,362–22,980	0.02–0.11	2.60
Lena	05.05.2019–15.06.2019	8,000–18,000	6–8	1,200–2,200	5–8	0.6–0.8	80–550	0.1–0.4	0.1–0.12	–	–	0.5
Moskva	05.07.2019–30.08.2019	2–18	2–3	10–120	1–2	0.5–0.7	54–230	0.8–1	0.01–0.06	5.32–20	0.8–0.9	–

Figure 2. Reference transformation illustrated for the Ob River cross-section in Salekhard (measured on 05.07.19): top panel – backscateter intensity; bottom panel – stream velocity.

Figure 3. Flowchart of the data processing. Explanations are given in the text.

Figure 4. Plot of normalized depth (z) versus SSC divided by SSC near bottom (maximum depth concentration for each ensemble): A – the Ob River, B – the Yenisey River (Igarskaya braid is a branch of the Yenisei River near Igarka city).

Figure 5. Distribution of the Rouse number (Ro) within river cross-sections by normalized depth (eq. 15(15) $dis{t}_{\mathrm{n}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{m}}=\frac{\left|dis{t}_c-dist\right|}{dis{t}_c}$(15) ). Dots show individual ensembles, and lines represent linear approximation for each cross-section.

Table 2. Statistical data for the Rouse number (Ro) versus normalized distance (Figure 6).

Profile	r	p-value	n
Yenisei 07.06.2019	−0.48	<2.2×10^−16	38,875
Yenisei 12.06.2019	−0.74	<2.2×10^−16	46,834
Igarskaya braid 12.06.2019	−0.32	<2.2×10^−16	14,554
Igarskaya braid 13.06.2019	−0.37	<2.2×10^−16	9,779
Ob 01.07.2019	−0.52	<2.2×10^−16	39,255
Ob 12.06.2019	−0.48	<2.2×10^−16	34,876
Ob 18.09.2018	−0.36	<2.2×10^−16	7,033
Ob 18.09.2019	−0.21	<2.2×10^−16	4,110
Ob 22.06.2019	−0.21	<2.2×10^−16	60,948
Ob 27.06.2019	−0.47	<2.2×10^−16	43,256
Ob 30.06.2019	−0.41	<2.2×10^−16	28,137

Table 3. Comparison of suspended sediment load estimates: ADCP versus traditional point-wise sampling method.

		Stream flow discharge, m3/s	QR, ADCP estimate	Number of bins in cross-section	Δ difference (%) between ADCP estimate and estimates based on 9 samples
River	Date		kg/s	n	%
Yenisey at Igarka	08.06.2019	89,200	9,478	50,770	−40.3
	11.06.2019	88,000	9,119	107,775	-
	13.06.2019	83,600	8,958	101,391	−84.8
Ob at Salekhard	27.06.2019	30,600	3,061	139,375	−29.6
	01.07.2019	30,500	2,997	129,024	−52.4
	22.09.2018	11,400	1,618	27,935	−33.3
Kolyma at Cherskiy	3.07.20	9,081	131	11,994	−81
	5.07.20	7,581	105	9,352	−78
	8.07.20	6,727	95	8,407	−3

Figure 6. The observed values of Ro and partitioning conditions of sediment transport R/(R+G) under various Rouse and $\frac{h}{d_{50}}$. Small rivers, h < 0.5 m – data from Guy, Simons, and Richardson (1966) and Julien (2010) and measurements at the Moskva River conducted within this study. Theoretical lines are from Einstein integral (Shah-Fairbank & Julien, 2015).

Guy, H. P., Simons, D. B., & Richardson, E. V. (1966). Summary of Alluvial Channel Data from Flume Experiments, 1956-61, 462-I. US Geology Survey, 1–104.

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Julien, P. Y. (2010). Erosion and sedimentation. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

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Shah-Fairbank, S. C., & Julien, P. Y. (2015). Sediment load calculations from point measurements in sand-bed rivers. International Journal of Sediment Research, 30(1), 1–12. doi:10.1016/S1001-6279(15)60001-4

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Data availability statement

All data processed in this study was derived by authors field work by the ADCP owned by the Lomonosov Moscow State University. Authors consent that all datasets (including video recordings) are open and can be used for research and educational activities. The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in public repository and can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.1080/20964471.2022.2116834.