Sediment Transport Phenomena in the Zaire River

Abstract

SUMMARYSediment transport measurements have been made in the estuary of the Zaire river since 1968, The results show that bed and channel morpholo~y is a predominant factor of the sediment distribution and transport. Vertical distribution of sediment transport near the bed reveals high rates in a layer of a thickness of a few decimeters, moving close to the bed, and a very erratic transport on the bed. At constant velocity, the influence of varying bottom shear stresses is shown in time series of bed load and suspended load. These observations could be related to the burst-sweep cycle. The successful application of Bagnold's approach for computation of sediment transport at single stations tends to prove the validity of power-related theories for large alluvial streams.