Measuring resuspension of sediment by barge tows


Adams, J. R., N. G. Bhowmik, and E. Delisio.  1989.  Measuring
resuspension of sediment by barge tows.  Pages 765-770 in Sam S.
Y. Wang, editor.  Sediment Transport Modeling.  Proceedings of the
International Symposium of the Hydraulics Division of the American
Society of Civil Engineers, New Orleans, Louisiana, August 14-18,
1989.  Reprinted by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental
Management Technical Center, Onalaska, Wisconsin, April 1993. 
EMTC 93-R002.  6 pp.  (NTIS #PB94-108982) 


ABSTRACT

The Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) is a multipurpose
waterway. Commercial navigation, commercial fishing and clamming,
recreational boating, hunting, sportfishing, and fish and wildlife
conservation are all important uses for the system.  The main
environmental issue is to establish and maintain a balance between
commerce, recreation, and conservation.  Conservation scientists
have always been concerned about the impact of vessel traffic,
both commercial and recreational, on the ecosystem.  One of the
focal issues is the  resuspension of sediments from the river bed
by the velocities, pressures, and waves caused by vessels moving
in the river.  An earlier effort to measure resuspension of
sediment relied on U.S. standard depth-integrating sediment
samplers.  In designing a new effort to collect field data on
resuspension, the advantage of obtaining samples at several points
in a single vertical over the depth-integrated sampling procedure
was recognized.  The field installation includes ISCO pump
samplers with intakes mounted at several distances above the river
bed.  Background samples are collected every hour. Vessel passage
events trigger an intensive period of sample collection.   
Typical data are presented and discussed for a straight reach on
the Illinois River during low flow in the fall of 1988. 

KEYWORDS

Upper Mississippi River System, barge tows, resuspension,
sediments, navigation