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Recent Advances in Soil Erosion and Sedimentation: From the Hillslope to Watershed

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil and Water".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 8805

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
USDA-ARS Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory, Kimberly, ID 83341-5076, USA
Interests: soil physics; soil erosion; land degradation and water quality; soil morphology and classification; surface and subsurface hydrology; environmental sensing and monitoring; geographic information systems; remote sensing; soil quality and environmental sustainability; modeling and computational tools in soil erosion and hydrology

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Guest Editor
USDA Agricultural Research Service, Southwest Watershed Research Center, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
Interests: ecohydrology; erosion; fire effects; plant community dynamics; wildland hydrology; infiltration and runoff
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
ETNA research unit—INRAE, Saint-Martin-d’Hères cedex 38402, France
Interests: soil erosion; overland flow; modeling; connectivity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Decades of soil erosion and sedimentation research have dramatically improved our understanding of detachment, transport, and deposition processes along the landscape continuum. Much of the historical soil erosion and sedimentation research is currently incorporated in a variety of soil erosion and hydrology models differing in their conceptual framework and scale of modeling. Nevertheless, fundamental challenges remain to be overcome before we achieve a complete and rigorous understanding of the complex processes governing the mobilization and transport of water and sediment in the landscape. This Special Issue will present scientific contributions dealing with conceptual, experimental, and monitoring studies of soil erosion and deposition processes at scales varying from the hillslope to the landscape. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: (1) new conceptual frameworks for modeling erosion across scales; (2) scaling and connectivity of sediment along the landscape continuum; (3) use of novel or emerging technologies to study and/or map erosion and deposition; (4) transient surface conditions and factors affecting soil erodibility; (5) erosion and deposition in heavily managed agricultural systems (e.g.,irrigated areas); (6) erosion and deposition measurement in understudied regions; (7) climate change and soil erosion; and (8) coupling between wind and water erosion.

Dr. S. Kossi Nouwakpo
Dr. Jason Williams
Dr. Frédéric Darboux
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • soil erosion
  • connectivity
  • erodibility
  • sediment transport
  • erosion mapping
  • irrigation erosion
  • climate change
  • hydrology
  • wind erosion
  • tillage erosion

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 4592 KiB  
Article
Hydraulic Conditions of Incipient Rill by Raindrop-Induced Overland Flow on Steep Slopes of Sandy Soil
by Seung Sook Shin, Sang Deog Park, Young Ju Sim and Jae Hyeon Ryu
Water 2023, 15(3), 502; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15030502 - 27 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2079
Abstract
Hydraulic characteristics of rill incipience on steep slopes with sandy soils are different from those of gentle slopes in the mountainous watersheds. In other to better understand the processes of the incision and expansion of rill, rainfall simulations were conducted in a laboratory [...] Read more.
Hydraulic characteristics of rill incipience on steep slopes with sandy soils are different from those of gentle slopes in the mountainous watersheds. In other to better understand the processes of the incision and expansion of rill, rainfall simulations were conducted in a laboratory soil box with an inflow device installed at the top of the steep slope. The location and shape of the rill incision were tested with respect to different slopes (20, 24, and 28°), rainfall intensity (80 and 100 mm/h), and segment distances with various inflow rates (0.0, 8.8, 17.5, and 26.3 ml/s). The result showed that rills with heatcut were mostly incised on the 2.4 m segments and progressively moved upslope on the 3.2 m segments. The steps of rill evolution with increase of inflow are identified as four stages; (1) sheet flow with impact of raindrops, (2) overland flow with flowpaths, (3) microrill with headcut incision, and (4) rill enhanced by headcut expansion. It appears that incision and headcut of rill is prevalent when the Froude number (Fr) changes from subcritical flow to supercritical flow and the maximum velocity of rill reaches over 0.065 m/s. Unit stream power using the maximum velocity of rill was the best parameter for estimating rill erosion as rill evolution greatly depends on maximum velocity of the local flow enhanced by rill incision and expansion As a result, it was found that critical conditions for rill incipient of sandy soils on steep slope are observed greater than those of loamy soils or gentle slopes. Full article
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25 pages, 5997 KiB  
Article
Use of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) for Mapping Erosion Potential in Gulf of Mexico Watersheds
by John H. Cartwright, Sadia Alam Shammi and John C. Rodgers III
Water 2022, 14(12), 1923; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14121923 - 15 Jun 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2587
Abstract
The evaluation of soil erosion is often assessed using traditional soil-loss models such as the Revised Universal Soil-Loss Equation (RUSLE) and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). These models provide quantitative outputs for sediment yield and are often integrated with geographic information [...] Read more.
The evaluation of soil erosion is often assessed using traditional soil-loss models such as the Revised Universal Soil-Loss Equation (RUSLE) and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). These models provide quantitative outputs for sediment yield and are often integrated with geographic information systems (GIS). The work described here is focused on transitioning towards a qualitative assessment of erosion potential using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), for improved decision-support and watershed-management prioritization in a northern Gulf of Mexico coastal watershed. The foundation of this work conceptually defined watershed erosion potential based on terrain slope, geomorphology, land cover, and soil erodibility (as defined by the soil K-factor) with precipitation as a driver. These criteria were evaluated using a weighted linear combination (WLC) model to map generalized erosion potential. The sensitivity of individual criteria was accessed with the one-at-a-time (OAT) method, which simply removed one criterion and re-evaluated erosion potential. The soil erodibility and slope were found to have the most influence on erosion-potential modeling. Expert input was added through MCDA using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The AHP allows for experts to rank criteria, providing a quantitative metric (weight) for the qualitative data. The individual AHP weights were altered in one-percent increments to help identify areas of alignment or commonality in erosion potential across the drainage basin. These areas were used to identify outliers and to develop an analysis mask for watershed management area prioritization. A comparison of the WLC, AHP, ensembled model (average of WLC and AHP models), and SWAT output data resulted in visual geographic alignment between the WLC and AHP erosion-potential output with the SWAT sediment-yield output. These observations yielded similar results between the qualitative and quantitative erosion-potential assessment approaches, with alignment in the upper and lower ranks of the mapped erosion potentials and sediment yields. The MCDA, using the AHP and ensembled modeling for mapping watershed potential, provided the advantage of more quickly mapping erosion potential in coastal watersheds for improved management of the environmental resources linked to erosion. Full article
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30 pages, 9221 KiB  
Article
Contemporary Trends in River Flow, Suspended Sediment Load, and Soil/Gully Erosion in the South of the Boreal Forest Zone of European Russia: The Vyatka River Basin
by Artyom V. Gusarov, Aidar G. Sharifullin and Achim A. Beylich
Water 2021, 13(18), 2567; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13182567 - 17 Sep 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2568
Abstract
Recent decades in the north of the East European Plain have been characterized by significant changes in climate and land use/cover, especially after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. At the same time, the hydrological consequences of these changes, especially changes in [...] Read more.
Recent decades in the north of the East European Plain have been characterized by significant changes in climate and land use/cover, especially after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. At the same time, the hydrological consequences of these changes, especially changes in erosion processes and river sediment load, have been studied insufficiently. This paper partially covers this existing knowledge gap using the example of the Vyatka River basin. Draining an area of 129,000 km2, the Vyatka River is among the largest rivers in the boreal forest zone of European Russia. Cultivated land occupies about one-fifth of the river basin area; about three-fourths is covered by taiga forest vegetation. The results of state long-term hydrometeorological monitoring and information on land use/cover made it possible to reveal contemporary (since the 1960s) hydrological and erosion-intensity trends and their drivers within the greater (96%) part of the river basin. There has been a statistically insignificant increase in water discharge in the Vyatka River basin during recent decades. This is due to a statistically insignificant increase (for the entire basin studied) in the spring snowmelt-induced floodwater flow and a statistically significant rise in the discharge in the year’s warm and cold seasons. The main reason for the detected trends is increased precipitation, including heavy rainfall during the warm season. In contrast to this, the total annual suspended sediment load of the river (especially that which was snowmelt-induced) and, consequently, soil/gully erosion intensity have experienced a significant decrease in recent decades (up to 58% between 1960–1980 and 2010–2018). Land-use/-cover changes (a reduction of cultivated land area and agricultural machinery, a decline of livestock in pastures) following the collapse of the Soviet Union are considered the main reasons for this decrease. The most noticeable changes in water discharge, suspended sediment load, and erosion intensity were observed in the most agriculturally developed southwest and south parts of the Vyatka River basin. All the above trends may be considered with a high probability to be representative for the south sector of the taiga zone of the East European Plain. Full article
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