Conversions of Surface Grain-Size Samples Collected and Recorded Using Different Procedures

AbstractInformation about the grain-size distribution of the surface layer of sediment exposed on riverbeds is often critical in studies of fluvial hydraulics, geomorphology, and ecology. A variety of sampling and analysis techniques are in common usage that produce grain-size distributions that are not directly comparable. This paper seeks to explore the appropriate conversions between different types of surface grain-size sampling methods. This is particularly timely in the light of increasingly widespread use of automatic and semiautomatic image-based measurement methods, the comparability of which with conventional measurement methods is relatively poorly constrained. For conversions between area-by-number (paint-and-pick) and grid-by-number (pebble-count) samples, the empirically derived conversion factor (±2.2) was found to be greater than that predicted by the Kellerhals and Bray model (±2), but the errors associated with using the value predicted by the model were small (3.8% in mm). For conversio...

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