Suspended Sediment and Bedload Flux from a Swiss Proglacial Forefield, Summers 2020-2021

Two summers of monitoring data from the Glacier d'Otemma proglacial forefield in the Swiss Alps. The dataset includes suspended sediment load and bedload transport measurements from two gauging stations equipped with pressure sensors, turbidity probes, and geophones. It was created by researchers at the University of Lausanne, with methods detailed in associated publications.

Use Cases

• Modeling sediment yield and transport dynamics based on the described discharge and sediment flux measurements.
• Analyzing the relationship between seismic signals and bedload transport using the geophone data and Fluvial Model Inversion algorithm.
• Studying seasonal and inter-annual variability in proglacial sediment export based on the two-year time series.
• Calibrating hydrological or geophysical models for braided river systems using the detailed sensor data from the two stations.

Strengths

• Data covers two full summer seasons (2020 and 2021), allowing for temporal comparison.
• Measurements are derived from two distinct gauging stations (GS1 and GS2) within the 1 km long forefield.
• Uses multiple sensor types (pressure, turbidity, geophone) for a multi-faceted measurement approach.
• Methods are peer-reviewed and documented in specific cited publications (Müller and Miesen 2022, Dietze et al. 2018, Mancini et al. 2023).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is limited to summer months and a two-year period, which may not capture long-term trends or winter processes.

Provenance

Source

University of Lausanne

Collection Method

Field monitoring using pressure sensors, turbidity probes, and geophones at two stations, with post-processing using established algorithms.

Time Range

Summers 2020 and 2021

Geography

Glacier d'Otemma proglacial forefield, Swiss Alps (45.93423 N, 7.41160 E, ~2450 m a.s.l.)