A Simple Conceptual Model of Sediment Yield

The sediment graphs (time distribution of sediment yield) are very essential if the sediment transports the pollutants that are toxic at high concentrations, requiring determination of peak, rather than average sediment flow rate. In this paper, an effort has been made to develop a simple conceptual model of sediment yield based on Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) method, instantaneous unit sediment graph (IUSG) method, and Power law and the performance is tested using real field data of Chaukhutia watershed of Ramganga river catchment (area = 452.25 km(2)). The proposed model is found to provide realistic estimates of temporal variation of sediment yield as well as total sediment yield during a storm event. The model is found to be most sensitive to parameter beta followed by k, alpha, A, and n(s). A comparison is made with the existing IUSG based models of Kumar and Rastogi (J Hydrol 95: 155-163, 1987) and Raghuwanshi et al. (J Hydraul Eng ASCE 120(4): 495-503, 1994) for developing sediment graphs.