Turbidity-controlled suspended sediment sampling

For estimating suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in rivers, turbidity is generally a much better predictor than water discharge. Turbidity is an optical measure of the cloudiness of water caused by light scattering from suspended particles, organics, and dissolved constituents. Although it is now possible to collect continuous turbidity data even at remote sites, sediment sampling and load estimation are still conventionally based on water discharge. With frequent calibration, the relation of turbidity to SSC can be used to estimate suspended loads more effi