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Turbidity and Other Sediment Surrogates Workshop
April 30 - May 2, 2002
Silver Legacy Hotel, Reno, Nevada

Proceedings of the Federal Interagency workshop on turbidity and other sediment surrogates, April 30-May 2, 2002, Reno, NV, edited by J.R. Gray and G.D. Glysson: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1250, sponsored by the Subcommittee on Sedimentation. To access the extended abstracts for this report, visit this url: http://water.usgs.gov/osw/techniques/TSS/listofabstracts.htm

Synopsis of outcomes from the Federal Interagency workshop on turbidity and other sediment surrogates, by J.R. Gray and G.D. Glysson: Proceedings of the Virginia Water Research Conference, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, October 8-10, 2003.

Use of turbidity and other technologies to infer suspended-sediment concentrations in surface water has increased substantially in the last decade -- as have questions and concerns regarding the quality and reliability of these data and derivative estimates of suspended-sediment concentrations and loads.

The Workshop was conceived to bring together a diverse group of those with interests in turbidity and other surrogates for suspended sediment. Products from the workshop will first appear at this web site by June 2002. The goals of the workshop are as follows:

Primary Goals

1. Establish an agreed-upon definition for turbidity.
2. Establish an agreed-upon measurement(s) (lab and field) for the defining the optical properties of water for both engineering and biological applications.
3. Define the method of operation of a "turbidity" meter to collect data to estimate suspended-sediment concentration (SSC) in a stream, and the ancillary data needed to interpret these data.
4. Define method to convert "turbidity" readings into SSC and determine approximate variance in results.

Secondary Goals

1. Define where and under what conditions an adequate correlation can be obtained between turbidity meter measurements and SSC.
2. Define the state of art of all primary methods for collection of surrogates for SSC.
3. Define for all technologies discussed approximate criteria/conditions under which each technology will and will not work.
4. Define variability between measurements from turbidity meters calibrated to the same standards and measuring a variety of natural waters.

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