The sediment delivery problem

Abstract

The linking of on-site rates of erosion and soil loss within a drainage basin to the sediment yield at the basin outlet, and improved knowledge and representation of the associated processes of sediment delivery, represent a major research need within the field of erosion and sedimentation and also an important scale problem in drainage basin studies. This paper reviews the limitations of the sediment delivery ratio concept by considering the problems of temporal and spatial lumping and its blackbox nature. Some recent advances in our understanding of the sediment delivery system and its modelling are described and the lack of detailed empirical investigations is highlighted. The significance of recent concern for the role of sediments in the transport of nutrients and contaminants to sediment delivery studies is introduced, and the need for further work in this field is emphasised.