Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Long-Term Evolution Of Sand Transport Through A River Network: Relative Influences Of A Dam Versus Natural Changes In Grain Size From Sand Waves, David J. Topping, Erich R. Mueller, John C. Schmidt, Ronald E. Griffiths, David J. Dean, Paul E. Grams

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Temporal and spatial nonuniformity in supplies of water and sand in a river network leads to sand transport that is in local disequilibrium with the upstream sand supply. In such river networks, sand is transported downstream as elongating waves in which coupled changes in grain size and transport occur. Depending on the magnitude of each sand-supplying event and the interval between such events, changes in bed-sand grain size associated with sand-wave passage may more strongly regulate sand transport than do changes in water discharge. When sand transport is controlled more by episodic resupply of sand than by discharge, upstream dam …