Department of WRIE

Water Institute
(WI)
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

WRU 503

Lecture 4a – River Sedimentation

Process

By
 Outline

1. Sources of Sediments in Rivers

2. Movement of Sediments in Rivers
3. Causes of Sediment Deposition
SEDIMENT DEFINITION…
Sediment
• Refers to the naturally occurring material that are
broken down by the process of weathering and
erosion and are subsequently transported by action
of wind, water, ice or force of gravity acting on the
particles.
• eg; sand and silt can be carried in the suspension in
river water and on reaching the seabed deposited by
sedimentation and buried may eventually become
sandstone, siltstone (sedimentary rock).
 SEDIMENT PRODUCTION
Source of Sediments in Rivers
• Sheet erosion due to deforestation, overgrazing
and poor activation methods
• Gulley erosion due to excess cultivation and
breakdown of the drainage pattern
• Bank scour due to geological instability,
changes in river regime or human activity too
near the bank
• Bed movement in cultural rivers
• Mass wasting also known as slope movement
(debris flows and mass flows)
 Source of Sediments in Rivers…
• Freeze-thaw action is one of the final stages of the
bedrock weathering process. As a result of this action,
the surface layer of weathered bedrock breaks up, and
fresh soil remains on the slopes. Subsequently, wind,
gravity, surface flows, and raindrops can remove the
soil and displace it to the toe of the slope.
• Chemical and physical disintegration of rocks and
they are of different shapes, their sizes ranges from
boulders to colloidal particles. Such fragmental
becomes fluvial sediments when they are entrained in
streams of water
 MODES OF SEDIMENT TRANSPORT
Sediment transport is the movement of solid particles
(sediments), typically due to force of gravity acting on the
sediment or movement of fluid in which the sediment is
entrained.
Sediments are often transported by water (fluvial process),
but also wind (aeolian processes) and glaciers.
The sediment load of a river is transported in various
ways;
1. Dissolved load
2. Suspended load
3. Intermittent suspension (saltation) load
4. Wash load
5. Bed load
 Definition
Dissolved Load
•Dissolved load is material that has gone into solution and is
part of the fluid moving through the channel.
•Since it is dissolved, it does not depend on forces in the flow
to keep it in the water column
•Salts my be leached from the soil and carried in Solution
Suspended-sediment load
•Suspended-sediment load is the particulate material that
moves through the channel in the water column.
•These materials, mainly clay, silt and sand, are kept in
suspension by the upward flux of turbulence generated at the
bed of the channel. The upward currents must equal or exceed
the particle fall-velocity for suspended-sediment load to be
sustained.
Wash load
•Is that part of the suspended load which is composed of
particle sizes smaller than those found in appreciable
quantities in the bed material.
•Wash load is that component of the particulate that is
“washed” through the river system. Wash load tends to be
uniformly distributed throughout the water column. Example
clay
Bed load
•These are particles that bounce along the channel, partly
supported by the turbulence in the flow and partly by the bed.
These materials, mainly sand and gravel, are kept in motion
(rolling and sliding) by the shear stress acting at the boundary.
•Course sand, rocks and boulders are moved along the bed by
rolling and sliding as bed load.
 SEDIMENT DEPOSITION
Cause of Sediment Deposition
•Sediment deposition is the process where by the materials being
carried or transported by a river are laid down.
•Deposition begin when erosion stop, the moving particles flow out of
the water or wind and settle on the new surface
•Deposition occurs when the forces responsible for sediment
transportation are no longer sufficient to overcome the forces of gravity
and friction, creating a resistance to motion
•This transition is caused by changes occurring in the agent of sediment
transport where;
• Water can slow or evaporate allowing sediment to stop being
carried along.
• Wind can die down and release soil
• Ice can be melt and release its hold on sediment leading to
deposition