Laserfiche WebLink
9 <br />At Green River, Utah, the mean annual suspended sand load is about 6 percent <br />greater than the load computed for the site below Willow Creek. The inter- <br />vening tributary in this reach, the Price River, is gauged near Woodside, Utah, <br />about 22 miles upstream of its confluence with the Green. Inadequate gauge <br />records prohibit the calculation of its average annual sand-load contribution <br />to the Green. However, since the mean annual discharge of the Price is only <br />2 percent of the flow of the Green, the sand load contributed by the Price is <br />not likely to be a major component of the total sand-load of the Green. The <br />similarity of the mean annual sand-load estimates of the Green near Willow <br />Creek and at Green River, Utah, suggests that quasi-equilibrium in terms of <br />sediment transport exists for this reach. <br />On average for 1965-1987, the suspended sand load of the Green near the Dinosaur <br />Quarry is nearly 50 percent of the river's sand load at Green River, Utah. <br />About two-thirds of this difference, 1,066,000 tons/year, is accounted for by <br />the White and Duchesne. Ephemeral washes and other tributaries do contribute <br />sediment to the Green, but most of this sediment is much finer than the bed- <br />material size range of the Green. The mass balance of sand loads calculated <br />from the long-term gauge histories of the Green, indicates that presently, the <br />Green is in quasi-equilibrium from the Dinosaur Quarry to Green River, Utah, <br />transporting just the sand load that is delivered to it throughout this reach. <br />SEDIMENT TRANSPORT AND CHANNEL GEOMETY INTERACTIONS <br />Channel dimensions are integrated results of all water and sediment discharges <br />conveyed by a channel. Schumm [8], [9] provided two general relationships <br />which indicate channel responses to changes in water and bed-material <br />discharge: <br />Qw = b,a,d <br />s <br />Qs = b,)L,s <br />d,p <br />where: <br />Qw mean annual discharge or mean annual flood <br />Qs bed-material transport <br />b. channel width ?- Y <br />A channel wavelength <br />d channel depth <br />s channel gradient <br />p sinuousity <br />An increase in Qw or Qs, either individually or in unison, should cause an <br />increase in channel width. A decrease in channel width could result from a <br />decrease in either or both Qw, and Qs. Changes in channel width were measured <br />from aerial photography in this study and channel depth data were available <br />for one location during the time span that included construction and operation <br />of Flaming Gorge. Channel wavelength, channel gradient, and sinuousity <br />changes were not measured in this study.