Relation of sediment transport capacity to stone cover and size in rain-impacted interrill flow

This study examines how the sediment transport capacity of interrill overland flow varies with stone cover and stone size at two flow intensities. Six series of flume experiments were conducted on two slopes (2°and 10°) with stones of three sizes (28.0, 45.5 and 91.3 mm) serving as roughness elements. Bed sediment size, water discharge and simulated rainfall intensity were the same in all experiments. It was found (1) that transport capacity is positively related to stone size, with the relation becoming stronger as stone cover increases and flow intensity decreases; and (2) that transport capacity is negatively related to stone cover at the high flow intensity and curvilinearly related to stone cover at the low flow intensity. The curvilinear relations are concave-upward with the lowest transport capacities occurring at stone covers between 0.40 and 0.60. The highest transport capacities are found at stone covers of 0 and 1, with the transport capacity being greater at the former stone cover than at the latter. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.