Many attempts have been made to find the relative accuracy of the above methods of computing total load transport rates in alluvial streams. However, the difficulty in the interpretation of these results is that these investigators have used different sets of data and total number of data points are from flume studies as well as field data. The criteria used for assessing the accuracy of these equations using the same sets of data are usually the percent of data falling within ± 30 percent error lines, or percent of the data for which prediction of total load is within 0.750 to 1.5, 0.5 to 2.0, or 0.33 to 3.0 times the observed value. On the basis of such assessment the following general observations can be made. First, the equations proposed by Ackers and White, Yang, Ranga Raju et al. and Karim and Kennedy have used a large data base of laboratory and field data; hence these equations are likely to give more representative results than the other equations based on limited data. Further, even though Engelund and Hansen’s equation is based primarily on flume data, subsequent verification by other investigators have shown that it gives very satisfactory results. Coming to specific observations, ASCE Task Force (1971) applied
various methods of total load estimation then available to sediment discharge measurements on the river Colorado at Taylor’s Ferry, and the Niobrara river near Cody (Nebraska) and found that Engelund and Hansens’s method gives much better accuracy than the other methods. Ackers and White (1980) used 1000 data points from flume studies and 260 points from field data and found that Ackers and White’s, and Engelund and Hansen’s equations give more accurate prediction than the other equations. Van Rijn (1983) used 500 data points from field data and found that consistently Engelund and Hansen’s equation gave best results; then came Ackers and White’s equation and then Yang’s. On the other hand Yang and Molinas (1982) reported good prediction by Yang’s equation for flume data. Hence it is felt that Yang’s equation is not very reliable for field conditions involving large depths, fine sediment, or both. Bechteler and Vetter (1989) used the data of six rivers on sediment transport rates; these were the Rhine, the Mississippi, the Rio Grande, and the Rio Puerto in New Mexico, the Five Mile Creek and the Niobrara.
On these rivers the suspended load was measured and bed-load was estimated using Meyer Peter and Mûller equation. They found that among the 15 total load equations tested, Karim-Kennedy’s equation gave best results; then came Bagnold, Laursen and Yang’s equations. Nakato (1990) used data on the Sacramento river at gauging stations near Butte City and Colusa in California, U.S.A. where discharge, suspended sediment load and bed material data were available. He tested the accuracy of equations proposed by Ackers-White, Einstein-Brown, Engelund-Fredsoe, Engelund-Hansen, Inglis-Lacey, Karim, Meyer-Peter and Mûller, Van Rijn, Schoklitsch, Toffaleti and Yang. According to Nakato, the predictions are not at all satisfactory by most of these formulae and predictions would have been worst if computed depth and not measured depth were used. Considering all these observations it is prudent for the river morphologists to use three or four equations for determining the sediment transport rate in a given case and then make his own assessment on the basis of these results and his judgment. With the present state of knowledge, predictions within ± 50 percent error can be acceptable.
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