Fluvial erosion, transport and deposition (continued)

• Transport-limited channels. Erosion proportional to divergence of sediment flux. Generally alluvial bed at low flow. Simplest model assumes single grain size

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In alluvial channels the rate of erosion is proportional to the spatial divergence of the bed sediment flux (upper right equation). Many transport formulas utilize two dimensionless parameters: the dimensionless sediment flux, ?, (defined in the lower left equation) and dimensionless shear stress, 1/?, (defined in the lower right equation). For beds composed dominantly of one sediment size, bed sediment transport formulas typically take the form of the upper right equation.