The purpose of this project will be to collect surrogate measurements coincident with definitive (physical) measurement of sediment flux in an ephemeral channel that will help establish a relationship between surrogate data and sediment flux.

The research will make a determination of what surrogate

credit: From Wikipedia

How's Your Community Doing?
Check Out it's
Community Vital Signs

measurements need to be collected in order to develop a relationship between surrogate data and definitive sediment flux.

The larger context of this research project reflects the fact that ungagged ephemeral tributaries present a challenging situation for estimating sediment delivery during a storm event.

If a relationship between surrogate data and definitive sediment flux can indeed be developed, then practitioners may have a means to estimate bed load using relatively inexpensive surrogate data collection techniques.

The current research site is the Arroyo de los Piños, which is on the western side of the Rio Grande, across the river from Socorro, NM.

This NOI is a modification of an existing agreement with New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

The modification includes additional funding for equipment necessary for the project.

The equipment to be purchased includes electronic data acquisition components including:
pipe hydrophones (to measure a surrogate of bedload), pressure sensors (to measure the rate of sediment entering bedload traps as well as hydrostatic pressure), a rain gage, a suspended sediment sampler, turbidity meters, along with necessary data loggers, connectors, software, converters, Modbus modules, relay boxes, and distributor boxes.