Using morphological adjustments to appraise sediment flux.

Morphological change in gravelly river channels and active slope environments can be used to derive lower-bound estimates of sediment flux between successive dates on which the morphology of channels or slopes was measured. This paper provides examples of such morphological budgets derived from analysis of digital elevation models built from ground survey data acquired from three sites in the upper Motueka River, and the Tarndale Fan and Gully system in the upper Waipaoa catchment. We demonstrate the utility of such an approach in providing information on processes operating in channel and slope environments at the same time as estimating volumes of sediment flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]