Effect of incoming sediment on the transport rate of bed load in mountain streams

Field experiments were conducted on bed load transport in the Diaoga River, a mountain stream in southwest China, to study the variation of bed load transport with varying sediment supply. The rate of bed load transport is greatly affected by incoming sediment (load and size). Under the same flow conditions, bed load transport rates may differ by three orders of magnitude depending on whether measurements were taken before or after the first flood of the year. The relation of the “bed load transport rate versus flow intensity” appears to have similar characteristics as a clockwise looped-rating curve. Experiments also were conducted during the non-flood season to study bed load transport processes with different incoming load from an upstream section. Bed load with different sizes can be grouped into two types: traveling bed load and structural bed load. Traveling bed load is composed of sediment finer than a critical size, Dc, and its transport rate depends mainly on the incoming sediment rate. The incoming sediment rate can alter the rate of bed load transport by three orders of magnitude. Structural bed load is composed of coarser sediment and its transport rate closely relies on the flow intensity.