Put and , the reduced gravity. Use the Boussinesq approximation, hydrostatic pressure, uniform vertical velocity and concentration profiles, negligible fluid entrainment and drag, and a flat bed. Integrating volume conservation, momentum conservation and the particle budget over the layer gives
The hydrostatic pressure resultant is ; the last right-hand side is the deposition flux. With , these are
The quasilinear coefficient matrix in variables is
Its eigenvalues are , where . Therefore the characteristic curves and their compatibility ordinary differential equations are
For the last equation the left eigenvectors are , and multiplying the quasilinear equations by them gives the displayed source terms. This is the sedimenting rectangular-channel characteristic compatibility relation; it supplies one differential relation on each wave family, rather than three independently closed scalar equations there. The contact eigenvector has and . For reference, an equivalent form is
Only for constant without settling do become genuine Riemann invariants. With settling, the spatial buoyancy gradient cannot be silently omitted.