Comparison of real time suspended sediment transport measurements in river environment by LISST instruments in stationary and moving operation mode

• The SSC and the PSD were in this study evaluated by two measurement devices based on laser diffraction.
• The measurements were performed during an 1‐year flood event in the river Danube in Hungary.
• A LISST‐SL measuring device was compared in stationary and moving mode to evaluate nonisokinetic sampling effects.
• The predominant SSC partly influenced the measurements and multiple scattering effects occurred.

Suspended sediment and particle size measurements were in this study performed with two instruments based on laser diffraction. The measurements were conducted in the river Danube during a 1-year flood, which enabled measurements in a large scale and under conditions with high sediment load. The aim of this study was to compare LISST-SL stationary measurements with LISST-SL moving measurements to gain knowledge for extensive field surveys of large areas. The moving measurements were performed in four different depths along a transect and compared with stationary measurements in five verticals in the same depths. The results showed that the measured suspended sediment concentrations are smaller for the moving measurements compared to the stationary measurements. In addition thus the d50 was smaller for the moving measurements, which is an indicator for the phenomena of non-isokinetic sampling. A comparison of the pump speed of the two operation modes proofed that during LISST-SL moving measurements a non-isokinetic sampling effect occurred. Hence, a suction effect happened, resulting in an underestimation of particles >63 µm. Beside the LISST-SL simultaneously a LISST-STX was used during the field survey to investigate the behavior and the results of the instrument under conditions where it is originally not designed for. However, the predominant suspended sediment concentrations in the river influenced the measurements and thus multiple scattering occurred. As a consequence the measurements of the suspended sediment concentrations showed lower values for the measured suspended sediment concentrations compared to the LISST-SL stationary measurements. It could also be seen that due to the high amount of fine particles, which were transported during the flood event, a re-scattering of light occurred also in case of measurements where the value for the optical transmission was with 0.38 above the standardized used limit of 0.3.