Sediment Load Of The Huang He example essay topic

492 words
'What happens to Sediment carried by Rivers?' 1. Describe the sediment budget of the River Start catchment in South Devon? The amount of sediment eroded from soil in the River Start is about 107 tonnes / km 2/year. As sediment is moved down the river 16 tonnes / km 2/year (15% of the sediment) is stored in hedgerows.

91 tonnes / km 2/year (85%) of sediment makes it to the lower Start Valley. 62 tonnes / km 2/year (58%) is stored in floodplains and 27% (29 tonnes / km 2/year) of the sediment yield makes it to the Slaton Ley. 2. What are the main features of the course of the Huang He River in relation to the 'Loess Plateau' in central China? The Huang He river runs through the Loess Plateau twice it also runs through the settlement of Lanzhou. Around about 1600 km of the Huang He runs through the Loess Plateau 3.

What is significant about the Huang He in China? It is the second largest river in China. It also has an extremely high sediment load with the average sediment concentration being 37 kg / m 3. During peak flows it is estimated that the sediment content of the river may reach 900 kg / m 3 4.

Why does the Huang He have a high sediment load? It has a high sediment load because the Huang He runs through the Loess Plateau of central China. Loess is a wind blown deposit that is very fertile but it can also be easily eroded by water. The Huang He has deep cut valleys through the Loess so this means that sediment is collected by the river in large amounts. 5. To what extent has the sediment load of the Huang He created problems for people?

It has created problems for dam and reservoir management downstream and for people living on the flat, floodplain area where deposition of sediment in the river channel has made flooding more common. 6. To what extent is the sediment budget of the Nile different to that of the Huang He? The sediment budget of the Nile is very different from the Huang He. The Nile doesn't flow through areas that are easily eroded like the Huang He with the average sediment load being only 1.4 kg / m 3. A dam has been built reducing the amount of silt being carried in the Nile thus reducing it.

7. Conduct some research into physical and human impacts on sediment yields. With reference to examples, explain how both physical and human factors can influence sediment yields. The types of human activity in the drainage basin also influence the amount of sediment supplied to a river.

Natural levees have formed when sediments have been deposited during flooding..