Articles | Volume 7, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-859-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-859-2019
Research article
 | 
17 Sep 2019
Research article |  | 17 Sep 2019

Introducing PebbleCounts: a grain-sizing tool for photo surveys of dynamic gravel-bed rivers

Benjamin Purinton and Bodo Bookhagen

Related authors

Measuring decadal vertical land-level changes from SRTM-C (2000) and TanDEM-X ( ∼ 2015) in the south-central Andes
Benjamin Purinton and Bodo Bookhagen
Earth Surf. Dynam., 6, 971–987, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-971-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-971-2018, 2018
Short summary
Validation of digital elevation models (DEMs) and comparison of geomorphic metrics on the southern Central Andean Plateau
Benjamin Purinton and Bodo Bookhagen
Earth Surf. Dynam., 5, 211–237, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-211-2017,https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-211-2017, 2017
Short summary

Related subject area

Physical: Geomorphology (including all aspects of fluvial, coastal, aeolian, hillslope and glacial geomorphology)
Sediment aggradation rates in Himalayan rivers revealed through the InSAR differential residual topographic phase
Jingqiu Huang and Hugh D. Sinclair
Earth Surf. Dynam., 13, 531–547, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-531-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-531-2025, 2025
Short summary
The glacial paleolandscapes of Southern Africa: the legacy of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age
Pierre Dietrich, François Guillocheau, Guilhem A. Douillet, Neil P. Griffis, Guillaume Baby, Daniel P. Le Héron, Laurie Barrier, Maximilien Mathian, Isabel P. Montañez, Cécile Robin, Thomas Gyomlai, Christoph Kettler, and Axel Hofmann
Earth Surf. Dynam., 13, 495–529, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-495-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-495-2025, 2025
Short summary
Multiple equilibrium configurations in river-dominated deltas
Lorenzo Durante, Nicoletta Tambroni, and Michele Bolla Pittaluga
Earth Surf. Dynam., 13, 455–471, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-455-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-455-2025, 2025
Short summary
Investigating the celerity of propagation for small perturbations and dispersive sediment aggradation under a supercritical flow
Hasan Eslami, Erfan Poursoleymanzadeh, Mojtaba Hiteh, Keivan Tavakoli, Melika Yavari Nia, Ehsan Zadehali, Reihaneh Zarrabi, and Alessio Radice
Earth Surf. Dynam., 13, 437–454, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-437-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-437-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short communication: Multiscale topographic complexity analysis with pyTopoComplexity
Larry Syu-Heng Lai, Adam M. Booth, Alison R. Duvall, and Erich Herzig
Earth Surf. Dynam., 13, 417–435, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-417-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-417-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Agisoft: AgiSoft PhotoScan Professional, available at: http://www.agisoft.com/downloads/installer/ (last access: 12 September 2019), 2018. a
Attal, M. and Lavé, J.: Changes of bedload characteristics along the Marsyandi River (central Nepal): Implications for understanding hillslope sediment supply, sediment load evolution along fluvial networks, and denudation in active orogenic belts, Geol. S. Am. S., 398, 143–171, https://doi.org/10.1130/2006.2398(09), 2006. a
Attal, M., Mudd, S. M., Hurst, M. D., Weinman, B., Yoo, K., and Naylor, M.: Impact of change in erosion rate and landscape steepness on hillslope and fluvial sediments grain size in the Feather River basin (Sierra Nevada, California), Earth Surf. Dynam., 3, 201–222, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-3-201-2015, 2015. a
Bertin, S. and Friedrich, H.: Field application of close-range digital photogrammetry (CRDP) for grain-scale fluvial morphology studies, Earth Surf. Proc. Land., 41, 1358–1369, https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.3906, 2016. a, b
Bertin, S., Groom, J., and Friedrich, H.: Isolating roughness scales of gravel-bed patches, Water Resour. Res., 53, 6841–6856, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR020205, 2017. a
Download
Short summary
We develop and test new methods for counting pebble-size distributions in photos of gravel-bed rivers. Our open-source algorithms provide good estimates in complex imagery from high-energy mountain rivers. We discuss methods of river cross-section photo collection and processing into seamless georeferenced imagery. Application of a semi-automated version of the algorithm in small patches can be used as validation data for upscaling to entire survey sites using a fully automated version.
Share