Suspended Sediment & Turbidity
• The terms “suspended sediment” and “turbidity” refer to the same phenomenon but are not interchangeable.
• Suspended sediment is the concentration of particles suspended in the water.
• Turbidity is an optical quality referring to the amount of light transmitted through the water.
Suspended Sediment & Turbidity Sediment in the water may be observed in two ways:
• as suspended sediment measured in weight of sediment per unit volume of water,
• or as turbidity measured in terms of light transmission through the water.
• Suspended sediment may be collected in a sample bottle designed so that the operator can open and fill it, at a selected depth.
• Also, it is possible to measure suspended sediment in situ using a sediment gauge.