Slide 17 of 27
Notes:
Sklar and Dietrich (1998, op. Cit.) propose a model of bed erosion by sand sediment abrasion. For low rates of sediment transport the rate of abrasion increases as sediment supply increases. However, when sediment loads become high, the bed surface becomes increasingly shielded by sediment on the bed, so erosion rates drop. In addition, the erosion rate initially increases as the channel gradient increases (for a given discharge), but then decreases as an increasing proportion of the sand is carried in suspension.
