Gurnell, A.M. and Fenn, C.R. (1984)

Box-Jenkins Transfer Function Models Applied to Suspended Sediment Concentration-Discharge Relationships in a Proglacial Stream

Article

Cite key

Gurnell1984

Language

en

Journal

Arctic and Alpine Research

Volume

16

Number

1

Pages

93-106

DOI

10.2307/1551175

URL

http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/1551175

Description

Suspended sediment rating curves have provided a simple method for the interpolation and extrapolation of suspended sediment concentration and load in proglacial streams. The usefulness of suspended sediment rating curves is explored using observations of suspended sediment concentration and discharge from the proglacial stream of the glacier de Tsidjiore Nouve, Valais, Switzerland. A logarithmic transformation of both suspended sediment concentration and discharge was found to be suitable for estimating suspended sediment rating curves by linear regression analysis, but in spite of lagging, differencing, and weighting the variables, a consistently good method of predicting suspended sediment concentration from discharge was not found. A major problem was serial autocorrelation in the residuals from the sediment rating curves, and so a method placing central attention on the autocorrelation in the data series was adopted. A transfer function between the discharge and suspended sediment series was estimated using the method proposed by Box and Jenkins (1970). The transfer function gave by far the best forecasts of suspended sediment concentration of all the models considered, even when it was applied to a different ablation season from that for which it was estimated. In addition, the transfer function and associated univariate time series models also provided information about the character of the suspended sediment and discharge series, which could be used to interpret the hydrology of the proglacial zone and the lower part of the glacier de Tsidjiore Nouve.