Search results for "conservation."
showing 10 items of 1994 documents
Hydrogeological hazards and weather events: Triggering and evolution of shallow landslides
2014
Abstract Landslides are the most intense and serious manifestations of the degradation of slopes and they are the main causes of geological hazard when they, directly or indirectly, involving towns and infrastructures. They are a global environment problem; there are several examples that have produced untold damages and loss of human lives in many parts of the world. In 1920 the landslides mobilization, as a result of a strong earthquake in China, in the province of Kansu, killed 200,000 people; in 1938 fast debris flow, triggered by heavy rainfalls in Japan, caused the death of 600 people; in 1963 in Italy the Vajont disaster caused the death of 1,899 people, as a result of a landslide lo…
Stemflow determination in forest stands
1997
Abstract A stemflow measurement technique is described, based on: (1) correlations between stemflow volume and tree diameters at breast height (DBH), determined on the basis of a relatively low number of tree samplings; (2) the distribution of trees in the stand relative to their DBH. Stemflow for trees in a stand (mm) can thus be determined from total rainfall (mm). The results were compared to those obtained with two other stemflow determination techniques. The proposed method was found to be more reliable, precise and easier to apply than the standard methods.
Predicting unit plot soil loss in Sicily, south Italy
2008
Predicting soil loss is necessary to establish soil conservation measures. Variability of soil and hydrological parameters complicates mathematical simulation of soil erosion processes. Methods for predicting unit plot soil loss in Sicily were developed by using 5 years of data from replicated plots. At first, the variability of the soil water content, runoff, and unit plot soil loss values collected at fixed dates or after an erosive event was investigated. The applicability of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was then tested. Finally, a method to predict event soil loss was developed. Measurement variability decreased as the mean increased above a threshold value but it was low als…
Water erosion susceptibility mapping by applying Stochastic Gradient Treeboost to the Imera Meridionale River Basin (Sicily, Italy)
2016
Abstract Soil erosion by water constitutes a serious problem affecting various countries. In the last few years, a number of studies have adopted statistical approaches for erosion susceptibility zonation. In this study, the Stochastic Gradient Treeboost (SGT) was tested as a multivariate statistical tool for exploring, analyzing and predicting the spatial occurrence of rill–interrill erosion and gully erosion. This technique implements the stochastic gradient boosting algorithm with a tree-based method. The study area is a 9.5 km 2 river catchment located in central-northern Sicily (Italy), where water erosion processes are prevalent, and affect the agricultural productivity of local commu…
Estimating the USLE soil erodibility factor in Sicily, South Italy
2012
The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is used by professionals and technicians to predict soil loss by water erosion and to establish soil conservation measures. One of the key elements of the USLE is the K factor, which is a measure of the soil erodibility. Given the difficulty in collecting sufficient data to adequately measure K, early in the USLE's history the soil erodibility nomograph method was developed to allow estimation of K based on standard soil properties. Since the nomograph approach was developed based on a small number of soils in the United States, it is necessary for other contexts to check the nomograph's ability to predict the soil's true erodibility. Considering that…
Is the riparian habitat creation an effective measure of plant conservation within the urbanized area?
2015
The study presents results of habitat creation and riparian vegetation recovery in artificial oxbow lakes in urbanized area within the large river valley. The investigation of open water, rush and wet meadows flora and vegetation in three ponds located in the city centre of Opole was conducted in years 2001–2013. Oxbow lakes were constructed as a compensation measure and no vegetation was transplanted into the ponds on purpose. 13-years observation showed that (1) the red-listed species are able to spontaneous reoccurrence after habitat restoration, but they can thrive only in first years of oxbow lakes recolonisation process, (2) there are some restoration constraints, especially in relati…
Exploring the influence of vegetation cover, sediment storage capacity and channel dimensions on stone check dam conditions and effectiveness in a la…
2018
Abstract Check dams are widely used for soil conservation at the watershed scale. When structurally sound, these engineering control works retain sediment as planned. However, there is limited information describing the influence of site characteristics on post-construction condition including structural stability and sediment retention capacity. More specifically, the effects of channel morphology, check dam geometry and vegetation characteristics as potentially influencing factors on sediment retention capacity at the watershed level are poorly understood. Thus, an investigation applying field and remotely sensed measurements, multi-regression models, redundancy and sensitivity analysis, …
Analyzing long-term soil erosion in a ridge-shaped persimmon plantation in eastern Spain by means of ISUM measurements
2019
Abstract Graft unions of cultivated plants have been used as passive bio-indicators to assess long-term soil erosion rates. By taking complementary topographical measures in inter-row areas, soil erosion can be more accurately estimated as done with the Improved Stock Unearthing Method (ISUM) in vineyards. As vines are not the only plants that are grafted, ISUM could be also applied to other crops. Most fruit trees are planted in ridges and our objective was to test if ISUM could be applied in a ridge planted persimmon plantation. This update in the methodology will allow the scientific community to expand measurements that will contribute to assessing soil erosion processes in intensive an…
Exploring calibration strategies of the SEDD model in two olive orchard catchments
2017
To optimize soil conservation strategies in catchments, it is required an accurate diagnosis of the areas contributing to soil erosion by using models such as SEDD (Sediment Delivery Distributed model). In this study, different calibration strategies of the SEDD model were explored to adapt its use in two olive catchments with different environmental features and managements. A data series of rainfall–runoff–sediment load, collected in the catchments for 6 years was used: i) to evaluate calibration strategies for different management and flow conditions through the analysis of the C and R factors, and ii) to describe the temporal patterns of sediment delivery ratio (SDR) at the event and an…
The Effect of Hydrology on Soil Erosion
2020
In this Special Issue, we have tried to include manuscripts about soil erosion and degradation processes and the accelerated rates due to hydrological processes and climate change. We considered that the main goal was successfully reached. The new research focused on measurements, modelling, and experiments under field or laboratory conditions developed at different scales (pedon, hillslope, and catchment) were submitted and published. This Special Issue received investigations from different parts of the world such as Ethiopia, Morocco, China, Iran, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Spain, among others. We are happy to see that all papers presented findings characterized as unconventional, provo…