Search results for "forest"

MANUAL SAMPLING AND TANK SIZE EFFECTS ON THE CALIBRATION CURVE OF PLOT SEDIMENT STORAGE TANKS

2004

In many experimental soil erosion plots, runoff is collected and carried by a conveyance system to a sequence of storage tanks. If the soil loss is measured by collecting, after mixing, samples of the stored suspension, then a calibration curve between the actual mean concentration (C) and the measured concentration (Cm) in the storage tank occurs. The aim of this article was to evaluate experimentally the factors affecting the relationship between C and Cm. For a sandy loam soil, the replicated measurements of Cm (20 samples) for two values of the actual concentration (C = 5 and 25 g/L) showed that the variability of the measurements of Cm is low and confirmed the reliability of a calibrat…

Overland Flow Times of Concentration for Hillslopes of Complex Topography

2016

The time of concentration is an important parameter for predicting peak discharge at the basin outlet and for designing urban infrastructure facilities. In studying the hillslope response, employing hydraulic equations of flow, the shape of the hillslope geometry has often been assumed as rectangular and planar. However, natural hillslopes have complex topographies whose shapes are characterized by irregularly spaced contour lines. Recently, kinematic wave time of concentration has been derived for rectangular and curved parallel hillslopes. This paper extends this work to hillslopes of complex planform geometry, considering the degree of divergence or convergence of the hillslope. The exte…

Carbon input threshold for soil carbon budget optimization in eroding vineyards

2016

Abstract Previous studies have documented that, relative to conventional tillage (CT), alternative soil management (reduced tillage, mulching, or cover crops) decreases soil erosion and increases soil organic matter (SOM) in vineyards. These previous studies, however, failed to consider the loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) with erosion that could occur with the adoption of agro-environmental measures (AEM) in a semiarid environment. Accordingly, the aims of this study were to determine whether changes in SOC content under AEM management are always positive and to develop a conceptual model for estimating the “SOC threshold”. The SOC threshold was defined as that level of SOC in an AEM-mana…

The need for harmonizing methodologies for assessing soil threats in Europe

2010

Central to the EU thematic strategy for soil protection is that areas affected by soil degradation through erosion, soil organic matter (SOM) decline, compaction, salinization and landslides should be identified in a clear and consistent way. However, the current methodologies to achieve this often differ and this can result in different perceptions of risks amongst EU Member States. The aims of this paper are to: (i) assess the current status of assessment methodologies in Europe (EU27) associated with erosion, SOM decline, compaction, salinization and landslides and (ii) discuss the issues associated with harmonization of these methodologies throughout the EU27. The need for harmonization…

Is land-use change a cause of loss of pedodiversity? The case of the Mazzarrone study area, Sicily

2011

Anthropogenic soils created ex novo by land-us e change in large scale farming are, from a pedogenetic point of view, catastrophic events that bring the soils to time zero and change the natural pattern of the soilscape, remarkably, in some cases. The qu antitative aspects of pedodiversity of a soilsc ape in South-East Sicily, where some types of soils, in recent decades, have suffered a consistent reduction due to the transformations by large scale farming, are considered. The evolution of pedodiversity over a 53-year period (1955 to 2008 ) is examined using a dedicated statistical method and a space – time model based on Markov analysis and cellular autom ata in order to predict the evolu…

Experimental Modeling of Submerged Pivot Weir

2020

An inclined rectangular overflow structure, also called a pivot weir, consists of a rectangular plate, angled downstream from the vertical, that can be used as an upstream water level control device. A pivot weir is submerged when the upstream water level is influenced by the downstream flow depth. In this paper, to investigate factors influencing submerged flow conditions, an extensive experimental program including 251 experimental trials was carried out using weir inclination angles of 39.6°, 53°, 85°, and 90° and weir heights ranging from 0.263 to 0.312 m. A formula to distinguish between free and submerged flow conditions was developed using the Π theorem of dimensional analysis and th…

Predicting event soil loss from bare plots at two Italian sites

2013

Abstract Including runoff in USLE-type empirical models is expected to improve plot soil loss prediction at the event temporal scale and literature yields encouraging signs of the possibility to simply estimate runoff at these spatial and temporal scales. The objective of this paper was to develop an estimating procedure of event soil loss from bare plots (length = 11–44 m, slope steepness = 14.9–16.0%) at two Italian sites, i.e. Masse, in Umbria, and Sparacia, in Sicily, having a similar sand content (5–7%) but different silt (33% at Sparacia, 59% at Masse) and clay (62% and 34%, respectively) contents. A test of alternative erosivity indices for the Masse station showed that the best perf…

Reply to the comment of Zimmermann et al. (2010) on “Spatial throughfall heterogeneity in a montane rain forest in Ecuador: Extent, temporal stabilit…

2010

Curve Number: Empirical Evaluation and Comparison with Curve Number Handbook Tables in Sicily

2014

The curve number (CN) method is widely used for estimating direct runoff depth from rainstorms. The procedure is on the basis of the parameter CN, a lumped expression of basin absorption and runoff potential, and a second parameter, initial abstraction (IA), which represents the interception, infiltration, and surface depression during the early part of a storm. The evaluation of CN in Sicily at a basin scale from rainfall-runoff multiday events is done using rainfall-runoff observations during the period 1940–1997 (mean record length of 20 years) in 61 Sicilian watersheds using three different methods: (1) the national engineering handbook, section 4 hydrology (NEH4) method (NEH4M) (the me…

Comment on “Overland runoff erosion dynamics on steep slopes with forages under field simulated rainfall and inflow by C. Li and C. Pan”

2020

Managing sloping landscapes to control soil erosion processes due to rainfall and runoff is a relevant problem, especially when the vegetation is absent or sparse. The aim of this paper was to investigate the applicability of a theoretically resistance law for overland flow under simulated rainfall, based on a power-velocity profile, using field measurements carried out by Li and Pan for three plots with planted forage species (Astragalus adsurgens, Medicago sativa and Cosmos bipinnatus).The relationship between the velocity profile parameter Γ, the flow Froude number and the rain Reynolds number was calibrated using the data by Li and Pan. The obtained overland flow resistance law was also…