Many land-management decisions would be aided by an understanding of the current sediment production and transport regime in a watershed and of the likely effects of planned land use on that regime. Sediment budgeting can provide this information quickly and at low cost if reconnaissance techniques are used to evaluate the budget. Efficient budget construction incorporates seven steps: careful definition of the problem to be addressed; collection of background information; subdivision of the project area into uniform sub-areas; interpretation of aerial photographs; fieldwork; analysis; and checking of results. Methods used in fieldwork and analysis must be selected according to the types of hillslope and channel processes active, the goals of the analysis, and the level of precision required. Methods for evaluating erosion and sediment transport rates are described, and four examples are given to demonstrate budget applications and construction.

Rapid Evaluation of Sediment Budgets, does not pretend to be a complete guide to sediment budget construction, but it provides a comprehensive overview of strategies and tools useful for understanding sediment production and transport in watersheds.
The validity of a sediment budget then depends on how wisely these methods are employed. Effective construction and interpretation of sediment budgets requires a sound understanding of erosion and sedimentation processes, experience in field mapping and in the measurement and analysis techniques to be used, and above all, good professional judgment. Each area represents its own difficulties and opportunities, so analysts must have a strong enough background in geomorphology and hydrology to take advantage of the peculiarities of the area to be evaluated, and they must be creative and open-minded in their approach. An insufficient number of sediment budget studies exists to allow statistical evaluation of the accuracy and reproducibility of the general approach. However, Reid and Dunne have found that when several trained geomorphologists are asked to evaluate a process rate, results agree relatively closely, and certainly to well within an order of magnitude. Because many sediment budget applications require only approximate estimates, this level of accuracy is thought to be adequate.
Construction of sediment budgets is more difficult in some areas than others. At sites where sediment input is dominated by large, infrequent events, rates must be evaluated using as long a period of record as possible. In such cases, land use may cause small changes in process frequencies which can strongly affect long-term sediment yields, but which may not be observable over the time frame available for analysis.
The most difficult aspects of a sediment budget to quantify are those involving transport and storage of sediment in channels. In areas where these components are particularly important, sediment budgets can often reveal the process interactions that control channel response, the types of changes a channel may undergo, and the likely location of those changes, even if rates cannot be quantified.
Several examples of rapidly constructed sediment budgets are provided by the authors. Anyone interested in constructing sediment budgets for management applications should find this book useful as a guide to specific analysis techniques and as a source of ideas for applying those techniques to management problems.