Fluvial Sedimentation in Southern Ontario

Abstract

Suspended sediment data for Southern Ontario stream have been analyzed with regard to areal and temporal patterns, characteristics of sediment concentrations, and relationships between sediment loads and watershed parameters. The range of annual suspended sediment yields for seven river basins is determined as 5250 to 175 000 kg/year/km2. The daily suspended loads exhibit highly skewed frequency distributions, with mean loads being equalled or exceeded less than 20% of the time and 50% of the annual load occurring during the months of March and April. It is demonstrated that sample loads collected during periods of low flow, and stream rankings determined from low flow data, are not indicative of the annual suspended sediment load picture. No simple model between suspended loads and such basin indices as relief ratio and drainage density is found to be satisfactory for prediction purposes.