Sediment routing in rivers can be described in terms of three one dimensional equations: the Saint Venant continuity and dynamic equations of motion, and sediment mass balance. The solution of these equations requires two supplementary relationships for friction resistance and sediment transport, which contain empirical constants in one form or the other. It is often difficult to determine these empirical constants a priori with any degree of certainty. One method of determining the constants in a particular situation is to optimise on observed river data. This paper deals with such an investigation. In this investigation a novel coupled linear implicit method is used to solve the sediment routing equations and the sediment routing parameters are identified by using the gradient techniques of optimisation. These are applied to real river data for the Missouri River.