Estimating suspended sediment concentrations from turbidity measurements and the calibration problem.

The article presents the study which explores the relationship between suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and turbidity for a small rural catchment in Brazil. It evaluates two calibration methods by comparing the SSC estimates obtained from the calibrated turbidity readings with direct measurements using the soil taxonomy system of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The first method is derived by relating the turbidity reading to simultaneous measurements of concentration obtained from SSC samples collected from the vicinity of the turbidity probe during flood events, while the second is based on the readings obtained from the turbidity meter when the probe immersed in samples using soils collected from the catchment. The study shows the efficiency of the first method over the second.