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UBC Theses and Dissertations
Hydrologic control on proglacial suspended sediment dynamics Richards, George
Abstract
Measuring suspended sediment concentration (SSC) is both costly and labour intensive. Temporal records of SSC are, however, of paramount importance in elucidating issues relating to geomorphology, ecology and water quality. Rating curves, that relate SSC and discharge by a simple linear regression function, are frequently employed by workers to address the problems of recording SSC. Such functions, however, rarely account for more than 50% of the variability in observed SSC. The aim of this thesis is to formulate subseasonal predictive SSC models and to investigate hydrologic controls on proglacial suspended sediment dynamics using data collected from a glacier-fed stream, Coast Mountains, British Columbia. In order to model proglacial SSC, the hydrologic season was initially divided into nival, nival-glacial, glacial and autumn recession periods, according to sudden shifts in the ratio of stream discharge between the glacierised and a neighbouring unglacierised catchment of similar size and aspect. Multiple regression functions, to predict SSC, were then developed for each period. These regression models incorporate a suite of easily measured variables and are shown to reduce significantly, initial problems of autocorrelation, heteroskedasticity and non-linearity of the SSC-discharge relationship. Analysis of the significant parameters in the multiple regression models, the hysteretic relationship between SSC and discharge, and downstream changes in SSC reveal that short-term, within channel, storage of fine sediment may be an important control on proglacial suspended sediment dynamics in this complex glaciofluvial lacustrine system.
Item Metadata
Title |
Hydrologic control on proglacial suspended sediment dynamics
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
2001
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Description |
Measuring suspended sediment concentration (SSC) is both costly and labour intensive.
Temporal records of SSC are, however, of paramount importance in elucidating issues
relating to geomorphology, ecology and water quality. Rating curves, that relate SSC and
discharge by a simple linear regression function, are frequently employed by workers to
address the problems of recording SSC. Such functions, however, rarely account for more
than 50% of the variability in observed SSC. The aim of this thesis is to formulate subseasonal
predictive SSC models and to investigate hydrologic controls on proglacial
suspended sediment dynamics using data collected from a glacier-fed stream, Coast
Mountains, British Columbia.
In order to model proglacial SSC, the hydrologic season was initially divided into
nival, nival-glacial, glacial and autumn recession periods, according to sudden shifts in the
ratio of stream discharge between the glacierised and a neighbouring unglacierised catchment
of similar size and aspect. Multiple regression functions, to predict SSC, were then
developed for each period. These regression models incorporate a suite of easily measured
variables and are shown to reduce significantly, initial problems of autocorrelation,
heteroskedasticity and non-linearity of the SSC-discharge relationship. Analysis of the
significant parameters in the multiple regression models, the hysteretic relationship between
SSC and discharge, and downstream changes in SSC reveal that short-term, within channel,
storage of fine sediment may be an important control on proglacial suspended sediment
dynamics in this complex glaciofluvial lacustrine system.
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Extent |
6255961 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-08-06
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0090147
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
2001-11
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.