Method for estimating sediment transport in ice-covered channels

A method is proposed for estimating rates of sediment transport in ice-cove red alluvial channels. The method extends existing, open-water procedures f or estimating rates of sediment transport to conditions of ice-covered flow . A key aspect of the method is the assessment of flow resistance attributa ble to bed-surface drag. That assessment is used to estimate rates of bed l oad and suspended lend, and thereby total bed-sediment transport rate. Esti mation of ice-covered suspended load additionally entails an approximation whereby open-water suspended load is scaled in proportion to the ratio of a reference sediment concentration for ice-covered flow relative to that for open-water flow. The reference concentration is calculated in terms of bed -load rate and shear velocity attributed to bed-surface drag. Flume data ar e used to develop the method and tentatively verify it. Field verification of the method presently is hampered by the absence of field data on bed sed iment transport in ice-covered channels.