A length of coastline, and its associated nearshore area, within which the movement of sand and shingle is largely self-contained. The littoral sediment cell concept ‘has become synonymous with pro-active coastal management practices in England and Wales’ (Cooper and Pontee (2006) Ocean & Coastal Manage. 49, 7–8).

Sediment yield is the total mass of sediment that reaches the exit of a drainage basin. Tamene et al. (2006) Geomorph. 76, 1–2 find that pronounced terrain steepness, easily detachable slope material, poor surface cover, and gullies promote high sediment yields; de Vente and Poesen (2005) Earth Sci. Revs 71, 1–2 propose a general relation between basin area, active erosion processes, sediment sinks, and total sediment yield; and Verstraeten et al. (2003) Geomorph. 50, 4 develop an index model to explain variability in area-specific sediment. A specific sediment yield is the sediment yield per unit area of the drainage basin, usually per square kilometre, and is calculated from:

Holeman (2010) Water Res. 4, 4, 737 provides a table of the sediment yield of major rivers of the world.

Sedimentation is a term often used to describe the blocking of an aquatic system by the deposition of sediment; see Bennett et al. (2005) Water Resources Res. 41, W01005, and Wang et al., Water Resources Res. 41, W09417. See Flemming (1965) J. Sed. Res. 35, 2 on sedimentary particles, their transport history, and their depositional environments.