Fluvial Sediment Transport in the Proglacial Fagge River, Kaunertal, Austria

Abstract

This study analyzes data from 2012 to 2015 for Fagge River, a glacier-fed river in the Austrian Alps. The observation period covers four consecutive ablation seasons. Suspended sediment and bedload were measured at a gauging station, which was installed directly downval-ley of the Gepatschferner glacier snout in 2012. During the following years, the glacier retreated with a high melt rate. This, in turn, caused problems for the operation of the gauging station (due to channel migration and destruction of probes), forcing the station to be moved to the location of the new channel. The majority of sediment was transported downvalley as suspended load. Bedload, in this case, was of minor importance for the whole observational period. However, higher bedload quantities were observed in the Fagge River during single flood events. In turn, the 4-year average of suspended sediment load to bedload ratio was 3.02.