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At low shear stresses merely above incipient conditions, the characteristic travel patterns of bedload particles remain difficult to predict due to intermittent movement. At these conditions, particles rest, are entrained into the flow when sufficient momentum transfer from near-bed turbulence occurs, and then come to rest again. The overarching goal of this research is to close the critical gaps related to intermittent movement in order to allow for Lagrangian modeling of bedload at near incipient conditions. Thereby, the specific objectives of the present work are to predict the statistics of (1) the particle resting time, tR, and (2) the magnitude of hydrodynamic momentum transfer (or impulse) during entrainment, Ient. To predict these statistics, we employed the conceptual framework of the impulse entrainment method and predicted impulse statistics by simulating turbulent time series realizations with a generic, regime-based streamwise velocity spectrum. Model validation was carried out by directly comparing simulation results with published experimental impulse and particle entrainment statistics. Model predictions showed that an increase in stress was correlated with a sharp decrease in the average tR and an increase in Ient.

The major water quality impairment in the midwest United States is sediment eroded from agricultural lands. Yet, few understand the spatial and temporal variability of erosion, or soil erosion dynamics, in relation to precipitation, topography, land management, and severe events. The objectives of this paper are to (1) develop a methodology for estimating long-term spatial soil erosion and water runoff losses and (2) explore issues in applying an established physical-based process model, Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP), to a large area by establishing a prototype system for the state of Iowa. This study for the first time provides a comparison of the model predictions against long-term measurements of the sediment delivery ratio (SDR) in the South Amana Catchment of the Clear Creek Watershed (CCW), a heavily instrumented watershed that is roughly 10 times the maximum WEPP fold size. To further examine the performance of WEPP in a semihumid environment, such as the CCW, where runoff and raindrop impact to erosion may be significant, the SDR was plotted as a function of the runoff coefficient, defined as the runoff/rainfall ratio. In addition, the WEPP predictions are compared against the statistical relation of SDR vs. runoff coefficient developed by Piest et al. in 1975) for watersheds in Iowa. It is shown that WEPP follows the trend shown by Piest et al. quite closely and performs well for continuous simulations extended up to 300 years. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9437(2008)134:6(796) CE Database subject headings: Water quality; Erosion; Predictions; Agriculture; Watersheds; Sediment: Runoff; Coefficients.