Inverse modelling of sediment transport

For the calculation of sediment balances an inverse model was developed. Sediment balances and transport are determined by integrating three types of information: (i)measured sediment transport (magnitudes and/or directions) and storage (sedimentation or erosion) at one or more spatial positions in the area of interest, (ii)physical information in the form of the continuity equation, and (iii)mathematical conditions in the form of smoothness constraints. In the present inverse modelling approach it is explicitly accounted for measurement and model uncertainties. The feasibility of the technique is demonstrated by two artificial cases, and one application to data from a tidal basin in the Dutch Wadden Sea.