Getting information on suspended sediments in a large river from acoustic backscatter

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in the last decade in extracting information on Suspended Sediment Concentration (SSC) from acoustic backscatter in rivers. Quantitative techniques are not yet effective, but acoustic backscatter already provides qualitative information on suspended sediments. In particular, in the common case of a bi-modal sediment size distribution, corrected acoustic backscatter can be used to look for sand particles in suspension and provide spatial information on their distribution throughout a river crosssection. This paper presents a case-study where these techniques have been applied.