Determining Land Units Contributions to Suspended Sediment Yield Using Sediment Fingerprinting Method (Case Study: Tull Bane Basin, Golestan Province)

Fingerprint method is one of the new methods to determine the contribution of suspended sediment in the land units. In this method, a suitable composite (set) of diagnostic properties and a multivariate mixing model are employed to estimate the relative contribution of sediment sources to sediments transported to watershed outlet. This research carried out in the Tull Bane watershed with 3278.91ha area, located in the south of Gorgan, Golestan province. This watershed with 14709.97 ton/year sediment yield is one of the most critical watersheds in the province. XRF experiments were used in this study and the 17 compounds were used as tracer. The watershed divided into five land units as well as the main river was divided into three sections. Three samples were taken from each land unit. Samples with two samples of the sediment samples at various watershed outlets as well as a combination of two sediment samples were compared. Test results were analyzed by factor analysis and discriminant analysis. Compounds CaO, SiO2, Rb2O and X2 were considered as tracer. Results showed bank river No. 5 has maximum share in suspended sediment with 19.54 percent. The fingerprinting approach to source ascription is appeared as providing valuable information regarding suspended sediment sources in the study catchments.