Output: Streambank Erosion Rates

By measuring bank heights and stream lengths for various BEHI and NBS values, total annual erosion rates in tons/year can be calculated. Multiple BEHI and NBS assessments obtained along a river reach are converted to sediment in tons/year by multiplying annual lateral erosion prediction times bank height times length of bank assessed. The cubic feet of annual erosion is converted to yards and then tons using the form in Worksheet 23 (PDF, 23 kb, 1p.).

Multiple-reach-predicted erosion rates converted to tons/year are summarized in Worksheet 23. It is often valuable to also convert erosion rates in tons/year to unit length yield by dividing by total length studied for an average erosion rate in tons/ft./year. This allows a unit erosion comparison to reference and other reach rates.