Articles | Volume 10, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-929-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-929-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
19 Sep 2022
Research article |
| 19 Sep 2022
| 19 Sep 2022
Toward a general calibration of the Swiss plate geophone system for fractional bedload transport
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland
Department of Environmental System Sciences, ETH Zürich,
Zürich, 8092, Switzerland
Gilles Antoniazza
Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics (IDYST), University of Lausanne,
Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland
Lorenz Ammann
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland
Dieter Rickenmann
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland
James W. Kirchner
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland
Department of Environmental System Sciences, ETH Zürich,
Zürich, 8092, Switzerland
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California,
Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
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The Swiss plate geophone system has been installed and tested in more than 20 steep gravel-bed streams. It is an indirect bedload transport measuring system. We compare the performance of this system with three alternative surrogate measuring systems, using calibration measurements with direct bedload samples from three field sites and an outdoor flume facility. Three of the four systems resulted in robust calibration relations between signal impulse counts and transported bedload mass.
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Short summary
Monitoring sediment transport is relevant for flood safety and river restoration. However, the spatial and temporal variability of sediment transport processes makes their prediction challenging. We investigate the feasibility of a general calibration relationship between sediment transport rates and the impact signals recorded by metal plates installed in the channel bed. We present a new calibration method based on flume experiments and apply it to an extensive dataset of field measurements.
Monitoring sediment transport is relevant for flood safety and river restoration. However, the...
