Search results for "stream"
showing 10 items of 682 documents
WEPP calibration for improved predictions of interrill erosion in semi-arid to arid environments
2013
Abstract Modeling soil erosion contributes to the understanding of the erosion processes and needs to predict accurately the erosion rates under different environmental conditions. Few studies have investigated the WEPP's applicability for arid and semi-arid conditions that differ from those where the model was developed. This research was carried out to evaluate and improve the WEPP model for arid and semiarid regions for interrill erosion using a rainfall simulator at plot scale. The results showed that measured interrill erosion rates ranged from 9.3 × 10− 6 to 89.6 × 10− 6 kg m− 2 s− 1. In comparison, the WEPP-interrill erosion prediction values were on average 14.5 times lower than the…
Impact of climate variability, drainage and land-cover changes on hemiboreal streamflow
2017
ABSTRACTThe aim of the study was to determine the effects of climate variability, agricultural land drainage and afforestation of agricultural land on river discharge. The study was conducted in the Vienziemīte stream basin (6 km2), where discharge was monitored on a daily basis during the time period of 1946–2010. In the stream basin, natural afforestation of agricultural land began in the 1950s, and in the mid-1970s artificial drainage systems were installed in all agricultural land (70% of the total basin area). Climate variability and artificial drainage were the main factors observed to be affecting stream discharge. The changes were most evident in annual and seasonal mean, minimum an…
Basin-Scale Water Resources Assessment in Oklahoma under Synthetic Climate Change Scenarios Using a Fully Distributed Hydrologic Model
2010
Climate change resulting from the enhanced greenhouse effect is expected to have significant implications for the hydrological cycle. Several studies have pointed out the importance of basin-scale investigations for determining regional impacts on water resources, including the effects of floods and droughts. In this study, a fully distributed hydrologic model is used to assess the potential impacts of climate change on water availability in a basin in Oklahoma United States . With this aim, the hydrologic model was applied for current conditions as well as under the hypotheses of climate variations represented by scenarios consistent with a climatic trend analysis generated using a stochas…
Runoff generation, sediment movement and soil water behaviour on calcareous (limestone) slopes of some Mediterranean environments in southeast Spain
2003
Abstract An interpretation of soil hydrology and erosion data obtained from limestone areas in southeast Spain is presented in the framework of recent hypotheses on runoff generation mechanisms in Mediterranean environments. The main objective is to synthesise and harmonise the data in theoretical concepts or behavioural models of hydrological functioning of Mediterranean limestone slopes. For this purpose, data were collected in a typical limestone area, with climatic characteristics ranging from subhumid to semiarid. Several sites were chosen with comparable slopes, vegetation and soils along a transect of 20 km to carry out several research projects. The data discussed in this paper cons…
Analysis of rill step–pool morphology and its comparison with stream case
2021
In this paper, the morphology of step–pool features is analysed using rill measurements and literature data for streams. Close-range photogrammetry was used to carry out ground measurements on rills with step–pool units, shaped on a plot having slope equal to 14, 15, 22, 24 and 26%. Data were used to compare the relationships between H/L, in which H is the step height and L is the step length, and the mean gradient of the step–pool sequence, Sm, for streams or the slope of the step–pool unit, S, for rills. The relationship of H/L against Sm is widely used to test the occurrence of the maximum flow resistance condition in streams, which is associated with the range 1 ≤ (H/L)/Sm ≤ 2. Further …
Scour around a Permeable Groin Combined with a Triangular Vane in River Bends
2019
River restoration refers to the environmental and ecological aspect of river engineering and aims to improve the natural habitat of a river system using eco-friendly methods. This paper introduces a new river restoration technique for bank protection and restoration of meander bends by combining a permeable groin with a triangular vane. Nine different combinations of permeable groins with triangular vane including three different effective lengths and three angles of vane were investigated in a 180 degrees mild laboratory flume bend in clear water conditions. Based on experimental tests, scour geometrical patterns were analyzed, classified, and compared with each other. This analysis showed…
Identifying a dominant discharge for natural rivers in southern Italy
2012
Abstract Natural rivers are subjected to continuous adjustments in response to any change in the environment. These environmental changes may occur naturally, as in the case of climatic variation or changes in vegetative cover, or may be related to human activities including channelization, damming, bank protection, and bridge construction. Identifying the value of that discharge (‘dominant’ or ‘effective’ discharge, QD) considered responsible for the main changes operated by a river has been a subject of great challenge to scientists and engineers during the last decades. In fact, this threshold value is largely adopted for stream-management decisions, for predicting the stable slope upstr…
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…
Experimental investigation on dispersion mechanisms in rigid and flexible vegetated beds
2018
Vegetation in channels strongly affects flow structure and turbulence, with consequences on the hydrological storage of nutrients and chemical tracers, the shelter of stream biota as well as the trapping or transport of sediments. At the same time, all these phenomena are inevitably subjected to alteration of hydrological conditions in fluvial systems due to climate change. The present study intends to provide a thorough investigation into the processes of transport and dispersion induced by flow turbulence within the vegetation structure. Specifically, velocity measurements in vegetated channels were intensively conducted and analyzed in the case of both flexible submerged and rigid emerge…
Modifications in Water Resources Availability Under Climate Changes: A Case Study in a Sicilian Basin
2014
Climate variability due to the greenhouse effect has important implications on hydrological processes and water resources systems. Indeed, water availability, quality and streamflow are very sensitive to changes in temperature and precipitation regimes whose effects have to be fully considered in current water management and planning. International literature proposes several models, attempting to assess accurately the available water resources under stationary and changing climatic conditions at different spatial and temporal scales. In order to assess the potential impacts of climate change on surface and groundwater resources water availability in a Southern area of Italy, a conceptual h…