Vol.:(0123456789)
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Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-021-01144-1
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Soil erosion andsediment transport modelling using hydrological
models andremote sensing techniques inWadi Billi, Egypt
O.Almasalmeh1 · AhmedAdelSaleh2· KhaldoonA.Mourad3
Received: 10 January 2021 / Accepted: 15 March 2021 / Published online: 29 March 2021
© The Author(s) 2021
Abstract
Modelling soil erosion and sediment transport are vital to assess the impact of the flash floods. However, limited research
works have studied sediment transport, especially in Egypt. This paper employs the HEC-HMS lumped hydrological model
to predict the sediment load due to the flood event of 9th March 2014 in Wadi Billi, Egypt. The Modified USLE model has
been used to calculate the total upland erosion, while Laursen-Copeland has been used to simulate load streams’ sediment
transport potential. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has been applied over Landsat 8 image captured
on 20th February 2014 using ArcMap 10.5 to determine the vegetation cover based on its spectral footprint. The resulted
sedigraph showed accumulation of more than five thousand tons of sediments at the Wadi’s outlet. The results are crucial to
design a suitable stormwater management system to protect the downstream urban area and to use flood water for ground-
water recharge.
Keywords MUSLE model· HEC-HMS· Wadi system· Remote sensing· Sedigraph· Egypt
Introduction
Soil erosion andsediment transport
Soil erosion and sediment transport are highly variable pro-
cesses spatially and temporally, as they are mainly products
of water activity (Singh etal. 2020). Therefore, at the catch-
ment scale, they follow the spatial and temporal distribution
of water flow (Şen 2008). At the local scale, the hydraulic
characteristics of water flow are highly variable with short
time and distance due to the complex microtopography, thus
it may even lead to multiple alternating erosion and deposi-
tion processes (Morgan 2005).
Soil erosion could be motivated by different dynamic
agents such as wind, rainfall, water flow, biological activi-
ties and temperature difference (Vanoni 2006). In an arid
environment, water flow is the most significant factor that
initiates erosion and transport the sediments (Horton 1945;
Alhamid and Reid 2002; Şen 2008).
Channel erosion is controlled by topographic and hydrau-
lic factors. In the youth stage, the topographic factors domi-
nate the erosion process, where the vertical erosion is initi-
ated, and the stream length is coinciding with the valley’s
length. The valley deepens increasingly and has typical V
cross-section, and the stream’s gradient is steep. As soon as
the base rock is reached, the hydraulic factors start to control
erosion activity, and the early mature stage of erosion starts.
The lateral erosion increases the channel’s width and a flood
plain is established due to the lateral deposition. The stream
becomes longer than the valley and its gradient is relatively
flat (Mueller 1968; Şen 2008).
The erosive effect is a result of the tunnel collapsing and
the interaction with surface erosion (Şen 2008). According
to Morgan (2005), soil pipes work as a subsurface drainage
system that transports significant amount of sediments of
fine particles ranging between 4 and 8µm and dissolved
solids, where large concentrations of plant nutrients and base
minerals can be found.
When the bed shear stress exceeds the critical value for
initiation of motion, the sediments start moving. The amount
of derived sediments depends on soil properties and runoff
* O. Almasalmeh
1 Water Engineering, Technische Universität Berlin Campus
El-Gouna, Hurghada, Egypt
2 Water Resources Research Institute, National Water Research
Center, Cairo, Egypt
3 The Centre forSustainable Visions, 22643Lund, Sweden
1216 Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
1 3
characteristics (Scharffenberg 2013). Sediments deposi-
tion occurs when the flow velocity becomes less than fall
velocity (Dey 2014). Many researchers developed different
approaches to map sediments (El-Diasty 2020) and to cal-
culate sediments yield (Dutta 2016) using empirical equa-
tions and models such as the GeoWEPP model (Singh etal.
2020), using the artificial neural network ANN and support
vector machine (Sharma etal. 2015) and using a multiple
regression model (Grauso etal. 2021). However, due to the
absence of detailed quantitative studies, a threshold value to
initiate soil piping erosion and sediment transport is still the
main gap that prevents representing the process within soil
erosion models (Bernatek-Jakiel and Poesen 2018).
Flash floods withintheRed Sea drainage basins
Yearly, the Eastern Desert of Egypt is exposed to multiple
storm events. Flash floods are produced and drain towards
either the Red Sea or the Nile River. Unfortunately, most
wadis are ungauged, and many urban settlements locate
within their deltas without protection measures. Abdel-Fat-
tah etal. (2015) estimated the damages cost for the period
of 1975–2014 as 1.2 billion USD/year.
Many researchers have investigated the rainfall-run-
off process in the area (Almasalmeh and Eizeldin 2019b;
Abdalla etal. 2015; Abdel-Fattah etal. 2015; Elnazer etal.
2017; Hadidi 2016; Moawad etal. 2016). However, there
are almost no published studies considering the soil erosion
and sediment transport by flood runoff. A limited number of
individual attempts exists for similar or close regions.
Elmoustafa and El-Koly (2011) estimated the amount of
sediments that drain due to frequent flash floods towards
the Nile River from the Eastern and Western Deserts water-
sheds, using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). They
found out that the Eastern Wadis yield 150,000 ton/year,
which is 2.3 times more than the contribution of the West-
ern basins, and the average longitudinal deposition rate was
about 360 ton/km/year.
Osman and Abu El-ella (2019) studied the sedimento-
logical and geomorphological characteristics of the recent
sediment within seven wadis drained from the Red Sea Hills
towards the Nile River, throughout Qena and Luxor Gover-
norates. They have collected 139 surface and pit samples and
analyzed their grain size distribution in the laboratory using
dry sieving. They found out the surface sediment ranged
between gravely sand and sandy gravel, while most of the
pit sediments are gravely sand. The results reflect different
sedimentation cycles resulted by frequent flash flood events.
Abuabdullah and Şen (2019) calculated the bulk sedi-
ment yield rate within three wadis along the Eastern Red
Sea coast, Saudi Arabia using empirical equations based on
the morphological characteristics of the basins and the flood
discharge. The results showed the amount of the sediment
for the 100-year flood event is 0.00048, 0.02165 and 0.03064
m3/s for Al-Amud, Masturah and Yabah wadis, respectively.
Methodology
Study area
To simulate soil erosion and sediment transport, the paper
takes the flood of March 9, 2014 in Wadi Billi as a case
study. Wadi Billi is an arid drainage basin located in the
Eastern Desert of Egypt, between the coordinates 33° 12′
33′′ to 33° 40′ 18′′ E and 26° 57′ 56′′ to 27° 28′ 20′′ N, Fig.1.
On 9th March 2014, Wadi Billi was exposed to an intense
short storm event, which produced a flash flood that passed
through the canyon towards the Red Sea causing damages
to the infrastructure of El-Gouna town. The precipitation
volume is estimated as 35 million m3. Limited field measure-
ment has taken place using a mobile electromagnetic flow
rate measurement device (Hadidi 2016).
The wadi is poorly gauged, and it has been delineated by
Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of a resolution 30m × 30m
(ASTER 2011) using Esri ArcMap 10.5. The wadi has an
elongated shape with an area of 878.7 km2, and a maximum
elevation of 2126m. It is undeveloped, except the delta,
where El-Gouna town settled since the 1990s. The satellite
image of Landsat 8 is showing mainly bare soil covering the
different morphological features. The wadi consists of five
typical morphometric features which are, from west to east:
high elevated mountains, pediment plain, valleys, coastal
mountains and coastal plain.
The rainfall-runoff process has been simulated using
HEC-HMS 4.4, and found out 2.19mm of excess precipita-
tion (equivalent to 1.78 million m3) transformed into a direct
runoff. Two peak values have been noticed with 54.2 m3/s at
06:00 PM and 60.3 m3/s at 08:00 PM, Fig.2.
The HEC-HMS model simulates soil erosion and sedi-
ment transport in conjunction with the hydrological simu-
lations. The calculated sediment load is distributed over
the time-series of sediment discharge, based on the runoff
hydrograph and the power function approach of Haan etal.
(1994). The model recognizes the basin as a combination
of individual elements (Scharffenberg 2013). The sub-
basin element is used to calculate the soil erosion until the
streams’ headwater by overland flow. The reach element is
used to calculate the sediment processes by stream flow to
the downstream. Figure3 shows the detailed methodology
to calculate sediment yield at the wadi outlet.
Mathematical modelling
The Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) model
used to calculate the total upland erosion as it considers the
1217Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
1 3
effect of rainfall factor throughout water runoff (Djoukbala
etal. 2019). It is written as (Williams 1995; Pak etal. 2008):
(1)
S
=11.8
(
Q×q
p)0.56
×K×LS ×C×P
,
where S is the sediments yield [t], Q is the runoff volume
[m3],
qp
is the peak flow rate [m3/s], K is the soil erodibility
factor [–], LS is the topographic factor [–], C is the cover
and management factor [–], and P is the support practice
factor [–].
Fig. 1 Wadi Billi location
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
400
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
12:00 AM 12:00 PM 12:00 AM 12:00 PM 12:00 AM 12:00 PM
Precipitaon [mm]
Discharge [m3/s]
Time [hh:mm]
Precipitaon [mm]
Field Records (Hadidi, 2016)
HEC-HMS simulaon
Fig. 2 Runoff hydrograph for the rainfall-runoff event of March 9, 2014
1218 Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
1 3
Laursen-Copeland model is used to simulate the total
load transported towards the Wadi outlet due to its suit-
ability for wide range of grain size 0.011–29mm (Brun-
ner 2010):
where
Cm
is the sediment discharge concentration [Ib/ft3],
𝛾
is the specific weight of water [Ib/ft3],
dm
is the mean parti-
cle diameter [ft], D is the effective depth of the flow [ft],
𝜏
′
o
is the bed shear stress due to grain resistance [Ib/ft2],
𝜏c
is the
critical bed shear stress [Ib/ft2], f is the function of the ratio
of the latter two variables as defined by a figure in Laursen
(1958),
U∗
is the shear velocity [Ib/s],
𝜔
is the particle fall
velocity [Ib/s].
Used data
Due to the absence of detailed soil tests, standard and aver-
age values have been chosen from the literature review
where it is required. Hence, standard soil properties have
been chosen for Wadi Billi, Table1.
Soil gradation curve, Fig.4, has been drawn based on the
collected samples from Wadi Billi delta (Elsisi etal. 2018).
The sieve analysis included diameters of 4–2–1.6–1.4–1.25–
1.12–1–0.85–0.8–0.63–0.5–0.3–0.1–0.063 and 0mm.
(2)
C
m=0.01𝛾×
(
dm
D
)7∕6
×
(
𝜏
�
o
𝜏
c
−1
)
×f×
(
U∗
𝜔
),
The soil is poorly graded and consists mainly of sand.
The uniformity coefficient calculated as the following and
reflects uniform graded sand soil (~ 40% fine, ~ 30% medium,
and ~ 30% coarse):
Fig. 3 The methodology of sediment yield calculation
Table 1 Standard soil properties for Wadi Billi (Scharffenberg 2013)
Specific
gravity
Density of
clay
Density of
silt
Density of
sand
Density of
gravel
– kg/m3kg/m3kg/m3kg/m3
2.65 481 1041 1490 1490
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0.0010.010.1 11
01
00
Passing [%]
Parcle Size [mm]
Fig. 4 Soil gradation curve at Wadi Billi delta
1219Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
1 3
The erodibility factor is calculated after Williams (1995)
equation as cited by Benavidez etal. (2018):
(3)
U
=
d
60
d
10
=
1.11
0.11
=
9.85
(4)
KUSLE =fc sand ×fcl-si ×forgc ×fhi sand
(5)
fc sand =0.2 +0.3 ×exp
[
−0.256 ×ms×
(
1−
m
silt
100 )]
(6)
fcl-si =(msilt
m
c
+m
silt
)
0.3
(7)
forgc =1−
0.0256 ×orgc
orgC+exp (3.72 −2.95 ×orgC)
where
ms
is the percent of sand content (0.05–2 mm
diameter particles) [%],
msilt
is the percent of silt content
(0.002–0.05mm diameter particles) [%],
mc
is the percent
of clay content (< 0.002mm diameter particles) [%], orgC is
the percent of organic carbon content [%].
Mainly three types of soil are determined, Fig.5. Coarse
sand distributed over the coastal and pediment plains,
medium loam distributed over wadis’ bed and medium clay
loam distributed as a thin layer over the western mountain-
ous area and coastal ridge. Soil fractions have been calcu-
lated for the topsoil cover based on standard values from
HWSD, Table2.
(8)
fhi sand =1−
0.7 ×
(
1−ms
100
)
(
1−ms
100 )
+exp
[
−5.51 +22.9 ×
(
1−ms
100 )]
Fig. 5 Soil map of Wadi Billi
(FAO/IIASA/ISRIC/ISSCAS/
JRC 2012)
1220 Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
1 3
The topographic factor considers the effect of slope and
slope-length through flow accumulation, cell size and slope.
It has been calculated after Moore and Burch (1985) equa-
tion as cited by Benavidez etal. (2018):
where m (sheet) and n (rill) factors depend on the domina
type of erosion [m = 0.4 and n = 1.3], U is the upslope con-
tributing area per unit width as a proxy for discharge [m2/m],
(9)
LS
=(m+1)×
(
U
L
o)m
×
(
0.01745 ×sin 𝛽
S
o)n
,
(10)
U=flow accumulation ×cell size
Lo
is the length of the unit plot
[
L
o
=22.1
]
,
𝛽
is the slope
anree],
So
is the slope of a unit plot
[
S
o
=0.09
]
.
Results anddiscussion
Generating theslope map andthedrainage
network
The slope map of Wadi Billi has been generated using the
Surface Analysis Tool in Esri ArcMap 10.5 (Fig.6—left).
The wide variations between slope values is due to the
variation of topography and the distribution of the different
Table 2 Erodibility factor for the Wadi Billi soil map after (FAO/IIASA/ISRIC/ISSCAS/JRC 2012)
MU global Topsoil texture
classification
Topsoil gravel Topsoil sand Topsoil silt Topsoil clay Topsoil
organic
carbon
f csand f cl-si f orgc f hi sand K ULSE
– – % % % % % – – – – –
16,369 Sand 1 89 6 5 0.23 0.2 0.99 1 1 0.198
16,442 Clay loam 32 43 29 28 0.39 0.2 1.00 1 1 0.199
16,418 Loam 1 44 33 23 0.73 0.2 0.99 1 1 0.198
Fig. 6 Slope (left), and elevation (right) of Wadi Billi
1221Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
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morphometric types (Fig.6—right): western mountains
area, central desert plateau, mountain ridges, Billi canyon,
and the coastal plain. The average gradient of the coastal
plain surface is 4.2m/km in smooth distribution. While it
is doubled for the flat plateau of Abu Sha’ar with 8.5m/km.
The average gradient is reduced for Billi canyon before pen-
etrating ridge of Esh Al-Mellaha mountain to 3m/km, then
it is increased to 11.9m/km for parts that penetrate the ridge
mountain, while the wadi wall sides have steep slope over
35°. The moderate slope distributing on the ridge of Esh
Al-Mellaha, where it is permeated by heights with slopes
up to 15°, and not exceed 6° in the north part. The steepest
slope distributed on mountainous areas is in the western part
of the basin which is above 35° and exceeds 72° for parts of
Abu Dukhan mountain.
The drainage network has mainstream of 6th order
according to Strahler classification system (Fig.7). The
network consists of 3,382 streams with a total length of
2383.2km. The mean bifurcation ratio is 4.97 referring to
mountainous and well-dissected landform. The high drain-
age density value of 2.71km/km2 referring to old stage
landform includes gullied slopes and low permeable surface.
Different drainage patterns can be noticed. The dendritic
pattern (A) is the most common and refers generally to a
fairly homogeneous rock without controlling the underly-
ing geologic structure as in the western part of Wadi Bill,
while it refers to a homogeneous soil cover as in most parts
of Wadi Billi. The parallel type (B) exists within Abu Sha’ar
Plateau and explains the highest value of drainage density.
The trellis pattern (C) emerged where the tributaries meet
with the parent stream at almost 90° angles and indicates
a folded topography as the tributaries developed in valleys
that resulted from synclines. The rectangular pattern (D)
Fig. 7 Drainage network of Wadi Billi
1222 Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
1 3
refers to a fault topography and indicates rocks that have
approximately uniform resistance to erosion.
Spatial distribution
Figure8 shows the spatial distribution of the topographic
factor over Wadi Billi. Higher values are distributed over
the drainage network, relatively moderate values spread over
mountainous areas, while low values cover almost the whole
wadi area. The mean value for the topographic factor is 0.36.
Land use land cover
The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has
been applied over Landsat 8 image captured on 20th Feb-
ruary 2014 using ArcMap 10.5 to determine the vegetation
cover based on its spectral footprint. Figure9 shows only
two main locations within the wadi delta record dense veg-
etation with an area of 818,526 m2. The satellite sensors
did not record any vegetation within Wadi Billi, which
refers to a very sparse and insignificant amount of veg-
etation. Thus, the cover factor has been determined from
literature after Morgan (2005), and the highest erosion is
recommended: C = 1.
The practice factor considers the effects of soil conser-
vation practice of agricultural lands (contouring, terracing,
or strip cropping) over runoff pattern and thus over soil
erosion rate. A supervised classification analysis has been
applied over the Landsat 8 image using ArcMap 10.5 to
determine the land use and land cover. Figure9 shows that
Wadi Billi is undeveloped, except in the delta, where roads
network and El-Gouna town are located in the coastal plain.
The wadi consists of unconsolidated (sand and gravel) and
consolidated (thin layer of clay over base rocks) bare areas
representing 58% and 41% of the total area, respectively.
Therefore, a maximum value of practice factor P = 1 as rec-
ommended by Benavidez etal. (2018).
Fig. 8 Spatial distribution of topographic factor over Wadi Billi
1223Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
1 3
The threshold value
The threshold value denotes a critical runoff peak value
that causes soil erosion, Table3. It has been calculated as a
Fig. 9 Land Use Land Cover
(LULC) map for Wadi Billi
Table 3 Calculations of the threshold value
Median parti-
cle size
Critical Shear
velocity
Channel cross
section area
Threshold value
Mm m/s m2m3/s
0.6 0.3 7.16 2.15
Fig. 10 Hjulström (1935) diagram shows the relationship between
flow critical velocity and particle size for soil detachment, transporta-
tion and settling (Morgan 2005)
1224 Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
1 3
function of critical flow velocity that has been determined
based on soil median grain size based on Hjulström (1935)
diagram, Fig.10.
Finally, the exponent controls the distribution of the sedi-
ments load over sedigraph time series. A linear value has
been chosen: Exponent = 1.
The input parameters for the Modified USLE are pre-
sented in Table4.
Sediment transport simulation
The resulted sedigraph (Fig.11) coincides with the runoff
hydrograph in terms of shape and time to peaks. The sedi-
ment transport starts at 05:00 PM and extends to 05:00 AM
on next day. The total transported sediment load is 5523.1
t for the whole event. Two peaks have been predicted at the
wadi outlet, which attain 1015 and 1386 ton at 06:00 and
09:00 PM, respectively.
Sensitivity analysis
All factors of the Modified USLE model, the threshold of
soil erosion and the exponent have been considered. The
range of the used values is matching with the possible
range of mistakes. The aim is to examine the effect of each
factor on the predicted sedigraph and determines the most
sensitive ones.
For the factors derived using remote sensing and geo-
processing techniques, the applied range is the actual
measurement ± 10%, because of the measurement accu-
racy. While for the factors that require field measurements,
the used range is the actual measurement ± 25%.
The results show that all factors are equally sensi-
tive and significantly influence the predicted sedigraph
in terms of sediment load and peak values, Fig.12. No
changes have been noticed in terms of time to peak or
sedigraph shape. The threshold of soil erosion almost did
not influence the resulted sedigraph. This can be attrib-
uted to the nature of flash flood runoff, where the runoff
hydrograph is characterized by a rapid rise and fall limbs.
Therefore, the difference of discharge between each two
subsequent simulation steps is larger than the applied
range of threshold values. The exponent controls the dis-
tribution of the same sediment load over the time series.
Thus, it significantly influences sedigraph shape and the
peak values.
Therefore, it is recommended to calibrate all factors
and the exponent using field observation to conclude the
exact sedigraph. Due to the accuracy of remote sensing
and GIS techniques, the topographic, cover and practice
management factors are realistic to a large extend. While,
special consideration is required for the erodibility factor,
as it is derived based on limited soil tests.
Conclusion
Repetitive flash floods occur in the Eastern Desert of
Egypt, which carry large quantities of water and sedi-
ments towards the urban areas in the delta causing severe
damages. Limited rainfall-runoff studies considering
sediment transport and yield are taken place. Therefore,
this research aims to model the soil erosion and sedi-
ment transport processes resulted from the flash flood
event of 9th March 2014 within Wadi Billi, Egypt. The
Modified USLE model has been used to calculate the total
upland erosion, while Laursen-Copeland has been used
to simulate load streams’ sediment transport potential.
The results showed that more than 5500 ton of sediments
reached the wadi outlet and all modelling parameters are
sensitive. However, special consideration is required for
the erodibility factor, as it is derived only based on field
tests. Moreover, the sediment load would significantly
influence the performance of any suggested stormwater
management system that would store floodwater behind
surface dams or recharge it into local shallow aquifers.
Therefore, it is recommended to design a suitable sedi-
ment trap system in the upstream to keep the designed
performance at its optimum.
Table 4 Input parameters for Modified USLE
Erod-
ibility
factor
Topo-
graphic
Factor
Cover factor Prac-
tice
factor
Threshold Exponent
– – – – m3/s –
0.2 0.36 1 1 2.15 1
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
14:00
16:00
18:00
20:00
22:00
00:00
02:00
04:00
06:00
08:00
10:00
12:00
14:00
16:00
4102raM014102raM90
Sediment Load [t]
Discharge [m3/s]
Rainfall-Runoff Hydrograph
Sedigraph
Fig. 11 Sedigraph of Wadi Billi for the flood event of 9th March 2014
1225Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
1 3
Acknowledgements The first author is acknowledging Prof. Reinhard
Hinkelmann and Mrs. Franziska Tügel from Chair of Water Resources
Management and Modeling of Hydrosystems, Technische Universität
Berlin, for the fruitful discussions, comments and guiding.
Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt
DEAL.. Not applicable.
Availability of data and material The data that support the findings of
this study are available from the corresponding author upon reason-
able request.
Software availability The HEC-HMS is available for free from: https://
www. hec. usace. army. mil/ softw are/ hec- hms/.
Declarations
Conflict of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attri-
bution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adapta-
tion, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
0
500
1000
1500
2000
14:00
16:00
18:00
20:00
22:00
00:00
02:00
04:00
09Mar201410Mar2014
Sediment Load [t]
Erodibility Factor K
K
K - 25%
K + 25%
0
500
1000
1500
2000
14:00
16:00
18:00
20:00
22:00
00:00
02:00
04:00
09Mar201410Mar2014
Sediment Load [t]
Topographic Factor LS
LS
LS - 10%
K + 10%
0
500
1000
1500
2000
14:00
16:00
18:00
20:00
22:00
00:00
02:00
04:00
09Mar201410Mar2014
Sediment Load [t]
Cover Factor C
C
C - 10%
0
500
1000
1500
2000
14:00
16:00
18:00
20:00
22:00
00:00
02:00
04:00
09Mar201410Mar2014
Sediment Load [t]
Pracce Factor P
P
P - 10%
0
500
1000
1500
2000
14:00
16:00
18:00
20:00
22:00
00:00
02:00
04:00
09Mar201410Mar2014
Sediment Load [t]
Threshold T
T
T - 25%
T + 25%
0
500
1000
1500
2000
14:00
16:00
18:00
20:00
22:00
00:00
02:00
04:00
09Mar201410Mar2014
Sediment Load [t]
Exponent
1
2
3
Fig. 12 Sensitivity analysis for sediment transport modelling factors
1226 Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (2022) 8:1215–1226
1 3
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