Sediment Yield and Discharge in the Changing Climatic Scenario

Abstract

Sediment yield in the river is of great importance for various disciplines such as urban drainage and environmental planning. This phenomenon can be affected by many natural and human-induced factors. A changing climate is one of the main role players in erosion at the catchment scale that could alter the sediment yield across the region. In this chapter, the suspended sediment phenomenon and its relation to the discharge and two climate variables of precipitation and temperatures are discussed. Accordingly, the effect of climate variability and change on suspended sediment yield is discussed in brief. A sample case of study is also detailed by means of evaluating the suspended sediment yield, discharge, precipitation, and temperature changes upstream and downstream of the Qotur River in Iran. It was concluded that the suspended sediment at the upstream station is more sensitive to the climate-borne events while the observation data at the downstream station highlighted the overwhelming effect of human activities on the suspended sediment yield. © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Saeid Eslamian, Mir Bintul Huda, Nasir Ahmad Rather, and Faezeh Eslamian.