Search results for "soil erosion"
showing 10 items of 149 documents
Effect of plot size on measured soil loss for two Italian experimental sites
2011
The objective of this investigation was to determine empirically the plot width and length effects on runoff volume, Ve, soil loss, Ae, and sediment concentration, Ce, by using data collected, at the temporal scale of the erosive event, on bare plots differing in width (2 to 8 m) and length (11 to 22 m) for two Italian stations (Masse, Umbria; Sparacia, Sicily). Mean results differed by a maximum factor of 1.6 for Ve, 1.8 for Ae and 1.2 for Ce when plots differing in width were compared and by a maximum factor of 1.4 for Ve, 1.2 for Ae and 1.3 for Ce when comparison between plot lengths was conducted. Differences between two plot widths or two plot lengths were not statistically significant…
Establishing a soil loss threshold for limiting rilling
2015
In this paper a frequency analysis of event soil loss measurements collected in the period 1999–2012 at the microplots and plots of the Sparacia Experimental Area in Sicily, southern Italy, was developed. The analysis was carried out using the annual maximum soil loss measurements normalized by the mean soil loss measured at a given temporal and spatial scale. The empirical frequency distribution of the normalized variable was well fitted by two Gumbel’s theoretical probability distributions discriminated by a value of the normalized variable equal to 2. This last value discriminates between the relatively low and frequent values of the normalized variable and the high and rare ones. The an…
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.
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…
Erosion rates and sediment budgets in vineyards at 1-m resolution based on stock unearthing (Burgundy, France).
2008
Abstract A new and simple method is developed to efficiently quantify erosion and deposition rates based on stock unearthing measurements. This is applicable to spatial scales ranging from plot to hillslopes, and to time scales ranging from single hydrologic events to centennial scales. The method is applied to a plot area on vineyard hillslopes in Burgundy (Monthelie, France), with measurement of 4328 vine plants. A sediment budget established at the plot scale shows a mean soil lowering of 3.44 ± 1 cm over 20 years, involving a minimal erosion rate of 1.7 ± 0.5 mm yr − 1 . Locally, erosion rates can reach up to 8.2 ± 0.5 mm yr − 1 . This approach allows the sediment redistribution to be m…
Validating the use of caesium-137 measurements to estimate soil erosion rates in a small drainage basin in Calabria, Southern Italy
2001
Recent concern for problems of soil degradation and the offsite impacts of accelerated erosion has highlighted the need for improved methods of estimating rates and patterns of soil erosion by water. The use of environmental radionuclides, particularly caesium-137 (137Cs), as a means of estimating rates of soil erosion and deposition is attracting increasing attention and the approach has now been recognised as possessing several important advantages. However, one important uncertainty associated with the use of 137Cs measurements to estimate soil erosion rates is the need to employ a calibration relationship to convert the measured 137Cs inventory to an estimate of the erosion rate. Existi…
Validating erosion rate estimates provided by caesium-137 measurements for two small forested catchments in Calabria, southern Italy
2003
Increasing concern for problems of soil degradation and the off-site impacts of accelerated erosion has generated a need for improved methods of estimating rates and patterns of soil erosion by water. The use of environmental radionuclides, particularly 137 Cs, to estimate erosion rates has attracted increased attention and the approach has been shown to possess several important advantages. However, the use of 137 Cs measurements to estimate erosion rates introduces one important uncertainty, namely, the need to employ a conversion model or relationship to convert the measured reduction in the 137 Cs inventory to an estimate of the erosion rate. There have been few attempts to validate the…
Measurements of rill and gully erosion in Sicily
2011
This article reports the results of a field investigation aimed to characterize the morphology of both rills monitored at Sparacia experimental area and two ephemeral gullies (EGs) located in the Tremamargi basin, Sicily, Italy. At first, the available literature data together with the measurements carried out in this investigation were used to show that the EG length is a key parameter for the estimation of the eroded volume. Then, the comparison among the pairs length and volume corresponding to measured rills, EGs and gullies showed that the exponent of the power relationship is independent of the channelized erosion type (rill, EG and gully), while a different scale factor has to be use…
Field investigation of rill and ephemeral gully erosion in the Sparacia experimental area, South Italy
2013
Abstract This paper reports the results of a field investigation aiming at characterizing the morphology and hydraulics of both rills and ephemeral gullies (EGs) monitored at Sparacia experimental area, Sicily, Italy. The comparison between rill and interrill erosion measurements showed that sediment delivery processes occurred in some erosive events and that the rill erosion rate was dominant in many cases. The measurements were used for testing both the empirical relationships between the channel (rill, EGs and gully) length and its eroded volume and among the morphological variables (length, width, depth and volume) describing the channelized process. Finally, the rill and EGs hydraulic …
Monitoring and predicting sediment yield in a small Sicilian basin
2001
Identifying areas of a basin that are most sensitive to erosion have stimulated the study of within–basin variability of the sediment–delivery processes and the use of spatially distributed models. To verify the reliability of a sediment–delivery distributed model applicable at the morphological unit scale (i.e., the area of clearly defined aspect, length, and steepness), experiments were carried out at mean annual and event scales in a small Sicilian basin. A Geographical Information System is briefly presented into which the measurements carried out at the basin outlet (runoff, sediment yield, etc.) and other point and areal information (soil erodibility, digital terrain model, etc.) were…