Sediment Related Links

USGS Water Mission Area

The USGS Water Mission Area works with partners to monitor, assess, conduct targeted research, and deliver information on a wide range of water resources and conditions

USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.

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Federal Interagency Sedimentation Project (FISP) Research

FISP interacts with other organizations including federal agencies, academia and private industry in research and development of standardized, calibrated equipment and methods to allow consistent and accurate quantification of sediment characteristics and transport in surface waters. FISP activities focus on the measurement and analysis of suspended sediment, bedload sediment, bed material, bed topography, adsorbed constituents, and sediment characteristics using physical samplers and surrogate technologies.

Selected FISP Work for FY 2023

• Interim Guidance for Calibration Checks on a Submersible Acoustic Backscatter Sediment Sensor
    Report
• Orientation Sensor for Bedload Sampler
    Proposal
• PD-21 Sampler Development Update
    Presentation
• Dual Sensor Densiometric Suspended Sediment Measurement
    Proposal
• AOBS Pairing Factor to Improve Continuous Estimates of SSC
    Proposal
• Nonintrusive Method to Estimate Bedforms
    AGU Paper, Frontiers Paper, and Elsevier Paper

Selected FISP Work for FY 2021-22

• Intake Efficiency Field Results for Federal Interagency Sedimentation Project Bag Samplers
    Report
• Next Generation Sampler Development
    Presentation
• Development and testing of an apparatus to track LISST-ABS calibration drift
    Proposal
• Role of Chemical and Physical Dispersive Methods on Particle Size Distribution Using Laser Diffraction
    Proposal

Selected FISP Work for FY 2020

• Field Evaluation of the Sequoia Scientific LISST-ABS Acoustic Backscatter Sediment Sensor
    Report
• Implementation of an Acoustic Beam Calibration Method
    Proposal and Presentation
• Software Development for Measuring Suspended-Sediment Using Down-looking ADCPs
    2019 SEDHYD Paper and 2022 FISP Presentation
• Next Generation Sampler Exploration
    Presentation

Selected FISP Work for FY 2019

• Laser Diffraction Lab Testing
    2019 SEDHYD Paper
• Laser Diffraction Field Testing
    Proposal and Presentation
• Sediment Acoustics and Turbidity Field Testing
    Proposal and Presentation
• Field evaluation of an innovative bathymetric lidar for shallow submerged channel bed topography
    Proposal and Presentation
• In-situ bedload measurements using multiple acoustic methods
    Proposal and Presentation
• Bedload Monitoring Using Hydrophones
    Proposal and 2019 SEDHYD Paper
• Pressure-Difference Bedload Sampler Attachment to Mitigate Scooping
    Proposal and Report
• Development of an Acoustic Beam Calibration Protocol
    Proposal and Report

Selected FISP Work for FY 2018

• Sediment Generated Noise for Bedload Surrogates
    Proposal and Presentation
• Laser Diffraction in the Field and Laboratory for Suspended-Sediment Surrogates
    Proposal and Presentation
• Sediment Acoustic Work Utilizing ADVM and ABS Instruments
    2019 SEDHYD Paper

Selected FISP Work for FY 2017

• Calculating Suspended-Sediment Load with Down-looking Acoustic Instruments
    Presentation 1, Presentation 2, and Rio Acoustics 2017 Paper

Selected FISP Proposals for FY 2016

• Testing the Hydraulic Efficiency of Pressure Difference Samplers While Varying Mesh Size and Type
    Proposal, Presentation, and Report

Selected FISP Proposals for FY 2015

• In Situ Densimetric Measurements as a Surrogate for Suspended-Sediment Concentrations
    Proposal, Presentation, and SEDHYD Paper
• Accuracy Evaluation and Verification of FISP Sediment Samplers through CFD Modeling
    Proposal, Presentation, and Report
• Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Suspended-Sediment Sampler Efficiency - Phase II
    Proposal, Presentation, and Poster

Selected FISP Proposals for FY 2014

• Portable Passive-Acoustic Bedload Monitoring Surrogate
    Proposal, Presentation, and Report
• Close-range Remotely-sensed Multispectral Imagery to Quantify Fine-grained Suspended Sediment
    Proposal, Presentation, and SEDHYD Paper
• Estimating the size of the measurement volume for passive acoustic monitoring of Self-Generated Noise
    Proposal, Presentation, Report, and SEDHYD Paper
• Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Suspended Sediment Sampler Efficiency
    Proposal, Presentation, and Poster

Selected FISP Proposals for FY2013

• Self-Generated-Noise Bed Load Measurements
    Proposal, Presentation, and Report
• The Surrogate Analysis and Index Developer (SAID) Tool
    Proposal, Documentation, and Downloads

Selected FISP Proposals for FY2012

• Digital Imaging for Particle Analysis and Characterization
    Proposal, Presentation 1, Presentation 2, and Report
• Evaluation of Multi-Frequency Acoustics as a Surrogate for Bedload
    Proposal, Presentation, and SEDHYD Paper
• ADCP/LISST-SL/SSC Data Analysis and Surrogate Testing
    Proposal, Presentation, WRR Paper, and SEDHYD Paper

Selected FISP Proposals for FY 2011

• Quantifying Bed-Load and Bed-Material-Load from Repeat Bathymetric Surveys
    Proposal, Presentation, and Report
• Acoustic backscatter/attenuation discrimination of particle size with in-situ particle-size measurement
    Proposal, Presentation, and Report
• Verification of New Technology to Reduce Solids Stratification Bias in Urban Runoff Sampling
    Proposal, WER Paper, and JEM Paper
• Laser In-Situ Scattering and Transmissometry - Streamlined (LISST-SL) Field Testing in Rivers
    Proposal, Presentation, and WRR Paper