Sediment routing in rivers can be described in terms of three one dime
nsional equations: the Saint Venant continuity and dynamic equations o
f motion, and sediment mass balance. The solution of these equations r
equires two supplementary relationships for friction resistance and se
diment transport, which contain empirical constants in one form or the
other. It is often difficult to determine these empirical constants a
priori with any degree of certainty. One method of determining the co
nstants in a particular situation is to optimise on observed river dat
a. This paper deals with such an investigation. In this investigation
a novel coupled linear implicit method is used to solve the sediment r
outing equations and the sediment routing parameters are identified by
using the gradient techniques of optimisation. These are applied to r
eal river data for the Missouri River.