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Bedload Monitoring Technologies

Meeting Overview: A variety of difficulties are encountered in measuring and monitoring bedload discharge (transport), and particularly so in gravel and mixed gravel-sand bedded rivers. Direct bedload measurements, which normally require medium- and high-flow measurements to be useful, tend to be time-consuming, expensive, and potentially unsafe. Indirect or surrogate technologies developed largely over the last decade show considerable promise toward providing relatively dense, robust, and quantifiably reliable bedload datasets. It is, therefore, timely for scientists who have developed and (or) are using these surrogate methods to congregate in a workshop where new ideas, approaches and technologies will be presented and discussed.

Objectives: Workshop objectives are to (a) further the development and verification of novel bedload surrogate methodologies toward their acceptance  in large-scale operational programs, and (b) and to consider needs related to international standardization of bedload data-collection, storage, and dissemination protocols. These objectives may be attained as part of, or through deliberations following oral presentations, and as part of the workshop proceedings.

Venue: The workshop will be held at the University of Minnesota, St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA (www.safl.umn.edu). The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul provide a historical and cultural backdrop for this workshop and provide an abundance of activities for attendees.  The SAFL (see: http://www.safl.umn.edu/), is a world-class research facility on the Mississippi River. The SAFL, built in the 1930’s, also serves as the headquarters for the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (www.nced.umn.edu). Research in fluvial mechanics and river restoration will be on-going in April 2007. As ground-breaking research in fluvial mechanics and sediment-sampler development has taken place at the SAFL, it represents an outstanding venue for the workshop.