Development of a method for suspended sediment transport monitoring by means of ADCP measurements

Monitoring stations in rivers and water courses are an important mean to obtain critical data about the different variables that play a role in the hydrodynamics and ecological processes. Measuring suspended sediment concentration often requires the displacement of equipment and manpower to the field. This is often expensive and not practical, in particular during severe weather and flow conditions. A method to determine the suspended sediment concentration as a result of ADCP remote measurements is here presented. This method relies on the relationship between the attenuation to backscatter ratio and the normalized attenuation coefficient. To test this method, data from a field monitoring station in Kokel, on the banks of the Devoll river in Albania, is used.