Sediment Transport and Soil Erosion—Modelling, Monitoring and Experimental Methods

A special issue of Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Hazards".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2019) | Viewed by 20356

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: field geology; geological mapping; basin analysis; engineering geology; geomorphological mapping; rocks; fluvial geomorphology; landslides; natural hazards
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: field geology; geological mapping; basin analysis; engineering geology; geomorphological mapping; rocks; fluvial geomorphology; landslides; natural hazards
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: basin analysis; engineering geology; geomorphological mapping; rocks; fluvial geomorphology; landslides; natural hazards; shallow landslides; optical fibre sensors; laboratoy experiments

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Research into soil erosion and sediment transport merits a broad echo within the scienfitic community due to the number of implications in terms of various environemntal processes and the consequent societal challenges. Channel stability, dam siltation, river-structure interactions, agriculture, urban planning, and flood risk generation are among the fields that are directly linked to the effects of soil erosion and sediment transport. Thus, this Special Issue aims to encompass the vast recent research devoted to those phenomena. Works on modelling, monitoring as well as experimental applications will be welcomed. Research into the development of innovative technologies and their application will be appreciated as we strive for excellence in the state-of-the art. Moreover, manuscripts on the integration of different techniques, in terms of modelling, monitoring and experimental work, are going to be incentivized, since it is our belief that a combination of multidisciplinary practices is crucial for the analysis and harmonization of these multifaceted phenomena. We consider that the submitted works will provide an extensive overview of the current research progress on these topics, as well as any closely related matter.

Prof. Monica Papini
Prof. Laura Longoni
Dr. Vladislav Ivov Ivanov
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Soil erosion
  • Sediment transport
  • Hydrographic basins
  • Geomorphology
  • Experimental methods

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 4310 KiB  
Article
An Alternative Empirical Model to Estimate Watershed Sediment Yield Based on Hydrology and Geomorphology of the Basin in Data-Scarce Rift Valley Lake Regions, Ethiopia
by Alemu O. Aga, Assefa M. Melesse and Bayou Chane
Geosciences 2020, 10(1), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10010031 - 15 Jan 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4843
Abstract
Physical-based soil erosion models are playing an important role in the assessment of soil erosion, transportation, and deposition in the watershed. Most of these models were developed for data-rich areas of the world and they need a measured data to calibrate and validate [...] Read more.
Physical-based soil erosion models are playing an important role in the assessment of soil erosion, transportation, and deposition in the watershed. Most of these models were developed for data-rich areas of the world and they need a measured data to calibrate and validate their results. To apply such physical-based models, the main factor hindering is the lack of measured sediment data. The amount of sediment in the fluvial systems is the result of hydro-geomorphological processes of a watershed and the nature of stream flows. Therefore, this study aims to develop an alternative empirical model that generates the observed sediment data based on the hydro-geomorphology and nature of stream flows for Ziway Lake basin in the rift Valley of Ethiopia. By applying Soil and water Assessment Tool (SWAT), the lake basin was divided in to two sub-basins (Maki and Katar) with 26 of the watersheds within Maki. The SWAT model was calibrated and validated for both stream and sediment flow by using SUFI-2 program and its performance was assessed by using model evaluation statistics. With calibrated sediment flow rates of 26 Maki sub basins, an empirical model was developed by using its respective drainage area, average sub-basins slope, surface runoff, soil erodibility factor, stream flow rate, and average rive slopes. The applicability of the newly developed alternative model was tested by using model evaluation statistics and validated inside of Katar sub-basin. It is recommended to test the developed model in other basins to incorporate with SWAT CUP program to calibrate and validate the sediment yield at data scared area. Full article
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15 pages, 4677 KiB  
Article
Wildfire Impacts on Slope Stability Triggering in Mountain Areas
by Andrea Abbate, Laura Longoni, Vladislav Ivov Ivanov and Monica Papini
Geosciences 2019, 9(10), 417; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9100417 - 25 Sep 2019
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 6802
Abstract
Landslides over steep slopes, floods along rivers plains and debris flows across valleys are hydrogeological phenomena typical for mountain regions. Such events are generally triggered by rainfall, which can have large variability in terms of both its intensity and volume. Furthermore, terrain predisposition [...] Read more.
Landslides over steep slopes, floods along rivers plains and debris flows across valleys are hydrogeological phenomena typical for mountain regions. Such events are generally triggered by rainfall, which can have large variability in terms of both its intensity and volume. Furthermore, terrain predisposition and the presence of some disturbances, such as wildfires, can have an adverse effect on the potential risk. Modelling the complex interaction between these components is not a simple task and cannot always be carried out using instability thresholds that only take into account the characteristics of the rainfall events. In some particular cases, external factors can modify the existing delicate equilibrium on the basis of which stability thresholds are defined. In particular, events such as wildfires can cause the removal of vegetation coverage and the modification of the soil terrain properties. Therefore, wildfires can effectively reduce the infiltration capacity of the terrain and modify evapotranspiration. As a result, key factors for slope stability, such as the trend of the degree of saturation of the terrain, can be strongly modified. Thus, studying the role of wildfire effects on the terrain’s hydrological balance is fundamental to establish the critical conditions that can trigger potential slope failures (i.e., shallow landslides and possible subsequent debris flows). In this work, we investigate the consequences of wildfire on the stability of slopes through a hydrological model that takes into account the wildfire effects and compare the results to the current stability thresholds. Two case studies in the Ardenno (IT) and Ronco sopra Ascona (CH) municipalities were chosen for model testing. The aim of this paper is to propose a quantitative analysis of the two cases studies, taking into account the role of fire in the slope stability assessment. The results indicate how the post-fire circumstances strongly modify the ability of the terrain to absorb rainfall water. This effect results in a persistently drier terrain until a corner point is reached, after which the stability of the slope could be undermined by a rainfall event of negligible intensity. Full article
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23 pages, 5406 KiB  
Article
Prediction of Muddy Floods Using High-Resolution Radar Precipitation Forecasts and Physically-Based Erosion Modeling in Agricultural Landscapes
by Phoebe Hänsel, Stefan Langel, Marcus Schindewolf, Andreas Kaiser, Arno Buchholz, Falk Böttcher and Jürgen Schmidt
Geosciences 2019, 9(9), 401; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9090401 - 16 Sep 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4095
Abstract
The monitoring, modeling, and prediction of storm events and accompanying heavy rain is crucial for intensively used agricultural landscapes and its settlements and transport infrastructure. In Saxony, Germany, repeated and numerous storm events triggered muddy floods from arable fields in May 2016. They [...] Read more.
The monitoring, modeling, and prediction of storm events and accompanying heavy rain is crucial for intensively used agricultural landscapes and its settlements and transport infrastructure. In Saxony, Germany, repeated and numerous storm events triggered muddy floods from arable fields in May 2016. They caused severe devastation to settlements and transport infrastructure. This interdisciplinary approach investigates three muddy floods, which developed on silty soils of loess origin tending to soil surface sealing. To achieve this, the study focuses on the test of a historical forecast modeling of three muddy floods in ungauged agricultural landscapes. Therefore, this approach firstly illustrates the reconstruction of the muddy floods, which was performed by high-resolution radar precipitation data, physically-based erosion modeling, and the qualitative validation by unmanned aerial vehicle-based orthophotos. Subsequently, historical radar precipitation forecasts served as input data for the physically-based erosion model to test the forecast modeling retrospectively. The model results indicate a possible warning for two of the three muddy floods. This method of a historical forecast modeling of muddy floods seems particularly promising. Naturally, the data series of three muddy floods should be extended to more reliable data and statistical statements. Finally, this approach assesses the feasibility of a real-time muddy flood early warning system in ungauged agricultural landscapes by high-resolution radar precipitation forecasts and physically-based erosion modeling. Full article
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17 pages, 7451 KiB  
Article
A Numerical Investigation on Tidally Induced Sediment Transport and Morphological Changes with Changing Sea Level in South-East England
by Nicoletta Leonardi, Xiaorong Li and Iacopo Carnacina
Geosciences 2019, 9(3), 140; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9030140 - 22 Mar 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3816
Abstract
The impact of tide-induced morphological changes and water level variations on the sediment transport in a tidally dominated system has been investigated using the numerical model Delft3D and South-East England as a test case. The goal of this manuscript is to explore the [...] Read more.
The impact of tide-induced morphological changes and water level variations on the sediment transport in a tidally dominated system has been investigated using the numerical model Delft3D and South-East England as a test case. The goal of this manuscript is to explore the long-term changes in morphology due to sea level rise and the large-scale morphodynamic equilibrium of the South-East England. Our results suggest that the long term (century scale) tidally-induced morphological evolution of the seabed slows down in time and promotes a vanishing net transport across the large scale system. Century-scale morphologically updated simulations show that both morphological changes and net transport values tend to decrease in time as the system attains a dynamic equilibrium configuration. Results further suggest that the presence of a gradual increase in mean sea level accelerates the initial morphological evolution of the system whose morphological rate of change gradually attains, however, same plateau values as in the absence of sea level rise. Given the same base morphology, increasing water levels enhance residual currents and the net transport near the coastline; and vice-versa, decreasing sea levels minimize both residuals and net transport near the coastline. The areas that are more affected by, water level and morphological changes, are the ones where the net transport is the highest. This manuscript explores and allows extending the idea of morphodynamic equilibrium at a regional scale, larger than the one for which this concept has been generally explored i.e., estuarine scale. Full article
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