Date of Award:

12-2008

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Advisor/Chair:

David K. Stevens

Abstract

Frequently measured turbidity was examined as a surrogate for total phosphorus (TP) and total suspended solids (TSS) loads at two locations in the Little Bear River, Utah, USA. Using regression techniques, equations were developed for TP and TSS as functions of turbidity. The equations accounted for censored data, and additional explanatory variables to represent hydrological conditions were considered for inclusion in the equations. By using the resulting surrogate relationships with high frequency turbidity measurements, high frequency estimates of TP and TSS concentrations were calculated. To examine the effect of sampling frequency, reference loads were determined from the concentration records for two water years. The concentration records were artificially decimated to represent various frequencies of manual grab sampling from which annual loads were calculated and compared to the reference loads.

Copyright for this work is retained by the student.