Search results for "hydrology"
showing 10 items of 1041 documents
Response to ‘comment on “predicting event soil loss from bare plots at two Italian sites”’
2014
In this paper, a response to the comment by Dr. Kinnell on “Predicting event soil loss from bare plots at two Italian sites”’ (Bagarello et al., Catena 109, 96–102, 2013) is provided.
Comparison of aggregate stability indices for soil classification and assessment of soil management practices
1989
Summary In view of soil structure analysis and land-use and management history evaluation, several mechanical indices of soil structure were tested on 13 Italian soils. From the wet and dry sieving aggregate distributions, a pseudo-textural aggregation index (Ipta) and a mechanical aggregation index (Ima)) were determined and compared with other soil structure stability indices based on single-sieve analysis. The single-sieve indices S and WSI were good correlated with Ipta and Ima, showing the possibility of substituting the time-consuming aggregate-size distribution determinations. All the soil structure indices were correlated with selected semi-permanent soil characteristics. Soil struc…
The impact of natural and anthropogenic factors on groundwater quality in an active volcanic/geothermal system under semi-arid climatic conditions: T…
2017
Abstract A comprehensive hydrogeochemical study of the cold and thermal groundwaters of the presently quiescent volcanic system at Methana was undertaken that involved collecting 71 natural water samples. Methana is a peninsula in Peloponnesus, Greece whose arid climate and hydrological situation is similar to that of the nearby small islands of the Aegean Sea. Similarly, the chemical and isotopic compositions of its water are dominated by the mixing of seawater with meteoric water both through direct intrusion and meteoric recharge. However, the simple mixing trends at Methana are modified by water–rock interaction processes, enhanced by the dissolution of endogenous CO2, which lead to str…
Application and evaluation of the SWAP model for simulating water and solute transport in a cracking clay soil
2005
In Sicily, the increasing scarcity of quality water is leading to irriga- from salinization (Crescimanno et al., 2004). tion with saline water in soils having a considerable susceptibility to In Sicily, the increasing scarcity of good quality water cracking. Irrigation systems involving high application rates are used coupled with intensive use of soil under semiarid to arid in these irrigated areas, and bypass flow during irrigation is thus climatic conditions, is leading to irrigation with saline prevalent. Adoption of management practices accounting for cracking water on soils having a high shrink-swell potential and is therefore necessary to prevent salinization and land degradation. su…
Assessing soil moisture regimes with traditional and new methods
2002
Soil moisture regime classes are required by U.S. soil taxonomy and other classification systems. Soil moisture regimes are based on long-term daily data of soil water content, which are as a rule estimated by means of models. International Commitee on Soil Moisture and Temperature Regimes (ICOMMOTR) has proposed classifying pedoclimate on the basis of biweekly water potential. This study was conducted to validate the use of the Erosion-Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) model in assessing soil water content of experimental fields placed in different European pedoclimatic conditions, to compare the pedoclimatic classification obtained with EPIC with those produced by the traditional Bill…
Soil aggregate stability in three Mediterranean environments
1996
Abstract This paper considers the effect of vegetation on soil aggregate stability in three different Mediterranean landscapes in Southeast Spain. Soils on limestone, marls and clays, with two levels of vegetation cover at each north-facing slopes of the study areas, were investigated. Three aggregate stability tests (CND, TDI and UD) based on the drop impact and ultrasonic dispersion methods and the Emerson dispersion test were performed. The results of the experiments show the positive influence of vegetation on aggregate stability. However, vegetation is less important than lithology in influencing soil aggregate stability. Soil depth and moisture also affect aggregation, but the relatio…
Testing infiltration run effects on the estimated water transmission properties of a sandy-loam soil
2016
Abstract Testing factors influencing determination of soil water transmission properties by an infiltrometer method helps better interpretation of the collected data and allows the development of appropriate sampling strategies for the intended use of the data. These factors include the soil water content at the start of the experiment, the height from which water is poured onto the soil surface, and the duration of the infiltration run. A sandy-loam soil was sampled with the BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) procedure of soil hydraulic characterization and two heights of pouring of water (0.03 and 1.5 m) under three different initial soil water content, θ i (0.12 ≤ θ i …
Testing the BEST procedure to estimate the soil water retention curve
2012
The BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) procedure is attractive for simple soil hydraulic characterization but there is the need to test the reliability of the predictions. In this investigation, the BEST procedure to predict water retention of 199 Sicilian soils was evaluated. The BEST water retention model performed well (relative error, Er≤0.05) for approximately 80% of the soil samples. Low errors were obtained in soils with a high clay, cl, content (≥44%), whereas both high and low Er values were obtained in soils with a lower cl content. The BEST particle size distribution (PSD) model was accurate for 50% of the samples and the fitting accuracy increased with cl, wit…
SW—Soil and Water
2000
Abstract Recent research has directed attention to the properties of the eroded material because of its influence in deposition phenomena and in carrying capacity of pollutant materials. In this paper, the spatial distribution of the content of nitrogen, phosphorus and total organic carbon is firstly deduced using the measurements carried out in 129 soil samples well distributed over the Sicilian Sparacia Basin and a Kriging interpolation method. Then the load of each chemical was calculated at morphological unit and basin scale using the above-mentioned spatial distributions and sediment yield values calculated by a parametric approach such as the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSL…
Evaluation of disruption of sediment connectivity and herbicide transport across a slope by grass strips using a magnetic iron oxide tracer
2018
Abstract The use of cover crops has been prescribed as a mitigation measure for offsite contamination, as they reduce sediment and agrochemical loads, thus reducing the hydrological connectivity of the land. However, there is the need to quantify its effectiveness for specific agrochemicals in broader range of conditions, to validate management for its safe environmental use. The objectives of the present study were: (1) to explore the use of simulated rainfall and magnetic iron oxide to understand the impact of vegetation strips on runoff and soil losses at the plot scale and, (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of vegetation strips in buffering sediment and herbicides coming from bare soil …