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Research on Soil Erosion and Sediment Transport in Catchment
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Special Issue "Research on Soil Erosion and Sediment Transport in Catchment"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 7922

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Giuseppe Bombino

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Science, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Via dell'Università, 25, 89124 Reggio Calabria, RC, Italy
Interests: runoff; erosion; water conservation; agricultural water management; agricultural hydraulics; riparian vegetation dynamics; river sediment transport; river geomorphology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soil is the fragile skin that anchors all life on Earth. The transition to agriculture from natural vegetation together with the intensification of meteorological drivers can increase soil erosion beyond the soil’s ability to maintain itself. This implies effects on catchment dynamics, increasing sediment transport and promoting the sudden occurrence of flash floods. Rivers and streams play a key role within the sediment cascade by transferring and buffering fluxes between mountain reaches and areas and downstream alluvial environments. This activity is strongly related to (i) the quick hydrological responses typical of upland environments in conjunction with (ii) the sediment availability. Sediment production naturally fluctuates in time depending on various factors such as climate and land‐use change, particularly concerning vegetation cover and human interventions.

Catchment dynamics also affect coastal morphology dynamics via the beach nourishment process, and their study should be done according to the watershed–coast continuum (WCC) concept. The balance between the local deposition of sediment delivered by the watershed and their mobilization by sea action can determine the advancement or retreat of the coast. There is an increasing need to recognize and quantify human impacts on soil loss and catchment sediment delivery, from both a scientific point of view and a conservational perspective. In the context of global warming/climate change and anthropogenic activities, hydrological processes in the river basin, a better understanding of soil erosion processes and catchment dynamics allows promoting proper design of landscape and river planning. For this purpose, the availability of predictive models to assess surface runoff and sediment delivery in catchments and their effect on coastal morphology evolution can contribute to planning and implementing catchment management strategies for the mitigation of hydraulic risk.

This Special Issue will focus on the following relevant topics:

  • soil erosion processes in farmland and forest areas;
  • impacts of climate change on sediment production;
  • conservative soil management practices;
  • remote sensing in erosion process detection;
  • precision agriculture in soil management practices;
  • sediment erosion and deposition processes in catchments;
  • impacts of floods on sediment dynamics and on morphological changes;
  • effects of engineering control works on sediment flux and connectivity;
  • regulated catchments and coastal dynamics;
  • hydrological models for sediment yield.

Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Bombino
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • soil conservation
  • hydrological modeling
  • sediment flux
  • erosion processes
  • channel morphology
  • river regulation and fluvial processes
  • check dams impacts
  • watershed–coast continuum

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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Article
Investigating the Granulometric Distribution of Fluvial Sediments through the Hybrid Technique: Case Study of the Baganza River (Italy)
by
Usman Ali Khan
and
Roberto Valentino
Water 2022, 14(9), 1511; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14091511 - 09 May 2022
Viewed by 1996
Abstract
Sediment characterization is a key parameter to understand the geomorphological attributes of a catchment (i.e., assessing the variability of the sediment transport capacity and surface roughness of a hydraulic channel). This assessment can be performed in several ways, for instance, through numerous sampling [...] Read more.
Sediment characterization is a key parameter to understand the geomorphological attributes of a catchment (i.e., assessing the variability of the sediment transport capacity and surface roughness of a hydraulic channel). This assessment can be performed in several ways, for instance, through numerous sampling techniques (i.e., pebble count and zig-zag methods). Sediment sampling using manual sieving inside a laboratory is a hectic process as it requires ample time and physical effort, particularly when the scale of interest is at the catchment level. In order to find the granulometric distribution of some sections of the Baganza streambed (northern Italy), in order to carry out analysis at the catchment scale, a hybrid technique (a combination of the conventional and photogrammetric method) is introduced. Different grain size distribution curves (GSDs) obtained from the image processing technique using Digital Gravelometer software and traditional sediment sieve analysis (sieve-by-weight method) were compared. Sediment sampling was limited to sections of the streambed that were visible during lower flows in the dry summer season. Sediment samples including fine soil fraction, were collected up to a depth of 30 cm, although the exposed areas behaved as gravels and cobble bars. The adopted hybrid technique approach for the characterization of fluvial sediments is desirable in order to accommodate the full range of particle sizes inside the riverbed. Digital photography was performed at ten different cross sections, along the longitudinal profile of the 30 km long reach of the Baganza River, to examine the sediment distribution, grading, and representative particle sizes (D10, D50, D90) at each of the respective cross sections. A comparison of the photogrammetric method and traditional sieve analysis revealed strong agreement in coarser segments of the grain size distributions, but it was deficient in the finer part (<2 mm) due to the shielding effect produced by bigger particles. However, the adopted hybrid technique appears to be quite efficient and promising in determining the GSD by reducing the costs and the sediment sample collection time in the field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Soil Erosion and Sediment Transport in Catchment)
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Article
Estimating the Best Exponent and the Best Combination of the Exponent and Topographic Factor of the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation under the Hydro-Climatic Conditions of Ethiopia
by
Manaye Getu Tsige
,
Andreas Malcherek
and
Yilma Seleshi
Water 2022, 14(9), 1501; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14091501 - 07 May 2022
Viewed by 1253
Abstract
The effect of the topographic factor of the Modified Universal Soil Equation (MUSLE) on soil erosion and sediment yield is not clear. Except for the coefficient, soil erodibility, cover, and conservation practice factors of the MUSLE, an individual effect of the exponents and [...] Read more.
The effect of the topographic factor of the Modified Universal Soil Equation (MUSLE) on soil erosion and sediment yield is not clear. Except for the coefficient, soil erodibility, cover, and conservation practice factors of the MUSLE, an individual effect of the exponents and topographic factors of the MUSLE on soil erosion and sediment yield can be seen by applying the model at different watersheds. A primary objective of this paper is to estimate the best exponents and topographic factors of the MUSLE under the hydro-climatic conditions of Ethiopia. For the sake of the calibration procedure, the main factors of the MUSLE that directly affect the soil erosion process, such as cover, conservation practice, soil erodibility, and topographic factors, are estimated based on past experiences from the literature and comparative approaches, whereas the parameters that do not directly affect the erosion process or that have no direct physical meaning (i.e., coefficient a and exponent b) are estimated through calibration. We verified that the best exponent of the MUSLE is 1 irrespective of the topographic factor, which results in the maximum performance of the MUSLE (i.e., approximately 100%). The best exponent that corresponds to the best equation of the topographic factor is 0.57; in this case, the performance of the model is greater than or equal to 80% for all watersheds under our consideration. We expect the same for other watersheds of Ethiopia, while for other exponents and topographic factors, the performance of the model decreases. Therefore, for the conditions of Ethiopia, the original exponent of the MUSLE is changed from 0.56 to 0.57, and the best equations of the topographic factor are provided in this paper. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Soil Erosion and Sediment Transport in Catchment)
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Article
Improving the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation by Physical Interpretation of Its Factors
by
Manaye Getu Tsige
,
Andreas Malcherek
and
Yilma Seleshi
Water 2022, 14(9), 1450; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14091450 - 01 May 2022
Viewed by 1773
Abstract
A primary objective of this paper is to change the input data requirement of the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) for the calculation of its runoff factor for possible application in data-scarce areas. Basically, the MUSLE was developed for a small agricultural [...] Read more.
A primary objective of this paper is to change the input data requirement of the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) for the calculation of its runoff factor for possible application in data-scarce areas. Basically, the MUSLE was developed for a small agricultural watershed, where the extent of erosion is from sheet to rill erosion, but we cannot exactly tell whether it considers gully erosion or not. The underlying physical assumption to improve the MUSLE is that the amount of potential energy of runoff is proportional to the shear stress for sediment transport from a slope field and the kinetic energy of the runoff at the bottom of the slope field for gully formation. The improved MUSLE was tested at four watersheds in Ethiopia, and it showed better performance (i.e., the minimum performance is 84%) over the original MUSLE (i.e., the minimum performance was 80%), for all four watersheds under our consideration. We expect the same to be true for other watersheds of Ethiopia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Soil Erosion and Sediment Transport in Catchment)
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Article
Investigating Behavior of Six Methods for Sediment Transport Capacity Estimation of Spatial-Temporal Soil Erosion
by
Linh Nguyen Van
,
Xuan-Hien Le
,
Giang V. Nguyen
,
Minho Yeon
,
Sungho Jung
and
Giha Lee
Water 2021, 13(21), 3054; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13213054 - 01 Nov 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1985
Abstract
Estimation of sediment transport capacity (STC) plays a crucial role in simulating soil erosion using any physics-based models. In this research, we aim to investigate the pros and cons of six popular STC methods (namely, Shear velocity, Kilinc-Richardson (KR), Effective stream power, Slope [...] Read more.
Estimation of sediment transport capacity (STC) plays a crucial role in simulating soil erosion using any physics-based models. In this research, we aim to investigate the pros and cons of six popular STC methods (namely, Shear velocity, Kilinc-Richardson (KR), Effective stream power, Slope and unit discharge, Englund-Hansen (EH), and Unit stream power) for soil erosion/deposition simulation at watershed scales. An in-depth analysis was performed using the selected STC methods integrated into the Grid Surface Subsurface Hydrologic Analysis model for investigating the changes in morphology at spatial-temporal scales at the Cheoncheon watershed, South Korea, over three storm events. Conclusions were drawn as follows. (1) Due to the ability of the KR and EH methods to include an additional parameter (i.e., erodibility coefficient), they outperformed others by producing more accurate simulation results of sediment concentration predictions. The KR method also proved to be superior to the EH method when it showed a more suitable for sediment concentration simulations with a wide range of sediment size and forcing magnitude. (2) We further selected 2 STC methods among the 6 methods to deeply explore the spatial distribution of erosion/deposition. The overall results were more agreeable. For instance, the phenomenon of erosion mainly occurred upstream of watersheds with steep slopes and unbalanced initial sediment concentrations, whereas deposition typically appeared at locations with flat terrain (or along the mainstream). The EH method demonstrated the influence of topography (e.g., gradient slope) on accretionary erosion/deposition results more significantly than the KR method. The obtained results contribute a new understanding of rainfall-sediment-runoff processes and provide fundamental plans for soil conservation in watersheds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Soil Erosion and Sediment Transport in Catchment)
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