On the assessment of the management priority of sediment source areas in a debris-flow catchment

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 656-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenzo D'Agostino ◽  
Gabriele Bertoldi
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella Boretto ◽  
Stefano Crema ◽  
Lorenzo Marchi ◽  
Giovanni Monegato ◽  
Luciano Arziliero ◽  
...  

<p>Extreme meteorological events are important causes of environmental damages, particularly in mountain areas that can be heavily affected by destructive processes such as landslides and debris flows. From 27 and 30 October 2018, an extraordinary storm - named Vaia - hit Northeastern Italy. The Vaia storm triggered mass wasting processes, generated new slope instabilities, caused widespread windthrows, and damaged human infrastructure. This work aims at assessing the effect of the Vaia storm in the Liera Torrent basin (Venetian Dolomites, Italy), by building and comparing sediment source inventories before and after the Vaia storm. The Liera basin drains an area of 35 km<sup>2</sup> and elevation ranges between 976 and 3192 m a.s.l. The mapping and classification of the sediment sources have been carried out through the interpretation of high-resolution orthophotos and Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) derived from airborne LiDAR data (1-m resolution) acquired in 2015 and 2019. A topography-based index of sediment connectivity has been applied to characterize connectivity spatial patterns at catchment scale and identifying the sediment sources on the hillslopes effectively connected to the Liera torrent. A preliminary connectivity analysis showed that the upstream sector the catchment located in the Pale di San Martino plateau is not effectively connected to the lower Liera valley because of its karstic environment and debris originated from the highest portion of the relief are confined in a hollow. Thus the inventories have been limited to the medium and lower parts of the catchment considering an area of 20 km<sup>2</sup>. Results indicated a total of 1650 sediment source areas after the Vaia event, with an areal increase of about 20% with respect to 2015 inventory, especially due to the development of landslide (843 in total for the 2019 inventory), expansion of the debris flow channel (257) and areas subject to surficial erosion (127). Other areas that have been identified encompass debris flow deposit (288), rock fall deposit (31), stream bank erosion (45), and other sediment source areas which need field survey to be properly classified (59). The analysis allowed: (1) obtaining reliable and detailed pre- and post- event sediment sources inventories, (2) assessing sediment connectivity at the catchment scale, which is fundamental for estimating the contribution of sediment sources and related transfer paths, (3) improving sediment dynamics understanding related to the Vaia storm in the study area. Future analysis will focus on field validation and residual sediment availability for the investigated areas. This study was carried out in the frame of the Interreg V-A Italy - Austria SedInOut project.</p>


CATENA ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
pp. 23-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Blasone ◽  
Marco Cavalli ◽  
Lorenzo Marchi ◽  
Federico Cazorzi

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 10-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caterina Ferrato ◽  
Jessica De Marco ◽  
Paolo Tarolli ◽  
Marco Cavalli
Keyword(s):  

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lifeng Yuan ◽  
Kenneth J. Forshay

Soil erosion and lake sediment loading are primary concerns of watershed managers around the world. In the Xinjiang River Basin of China, severe soil erosion occurs primarily during monsoon periods, resulting in sediment flow into Poyang Lake and subsequently causing lake water quality deterioration. Here, we identified high-risk soil erosion areas and conditions that drive sediment yield in a watershed system with limited available data to guide localized soil erosion control measures intended to support reduced sediment load into Poyang Lake. We used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to simulate monthly and annual sediment yield based on a calibrated SWAT streamflow model, identified where sediment originated, and determined what geographic factors drove the loading within the watershed. We applied monthly and daily streamflow discharge (1985–2009) and monthly suspended sediment load data (1985–2001) to Meigang station to conduct parameter sensitivity analysis, calibration, validation, and uncertainty analysis of the model. The coefficient of determination (R2), Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), percent bias (PBIAS), and RMSE -observation’s standard deviation ratio (RSR) values of the monthly sediment load were 0.63, 0.62, 3.8%, and 0.61 during calibration, respectively. Spatially, the annual sediment yield rate ranged from 3 ton ha−1year−1 on riparian lowlands of the Xinjiang main channel to 33 ton ha−1year−1 on mountain highlands, with a basin-wide mean of 19 ton ha−1year−1. The study showed that 99.9% of the total land area suffered soil loss (greater than 5 ton ha−1year−1). More sediment originated from the southern mountain highlands than from the northern mountain highlands of the Xinjiang river channel. These results suggest that specific land use types and geographic conditions can be identified as hotspots of sediment source with relatively scarce data; in this case, orchards, barren lands, and mountain highlands with slopes greater than 25° were the primary sediment source areas. This study developed a reliable, physically-based streamflow model and illustrates critical source areas and conditions that influence sediment yield.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Crescenzo ◽  
Gaetano Pecoraro ◽  
Michele Calvello ◽  
Richard Guthrie

<p>Debris flows and debris avalanches are rapid to extremely rapid landslides that tend to travel considerable distances from their source areas. Interaction between debris flows and elements at risk along their travel path may result in potentially significant destructive consequences. One of the critical challenges to overcome with respect to debris flow risk is, therefore, the credible prediction of their size, travel path, runout distance, and depths of erosion and deposition. To these purposes, at slope or catchment scale, sophisticated physically-based models, appropriately considering several factors and phenomena controlling the slope failure mechanisms, may be used. These models, however, are computationally costly and time consuming, and that significantly hinders their applicability at regional scale. Indeed, at regional scale, debris flows hazard assessment is usually carried out by means of qualitative approaches relying on field surveys, geomorphological knowledge, geometric features, and expert judgement.</p><p>In this study, a quantitative modelling approach based on cellular automata methods, wherein individual cells move across a digital elevation model (DEM) landscape following behavioral rules defined probabilistically, is proposed and tested. The adopted model, called LABS, is able to estimate erosion and deposition soil volumes along a debris flow path by deploying at the source areas autonomous subroutines, called agents, over a 5 m spatial resolution DEM, which provides the basic information to each agent in each time-step. Rules for scour and deposition are based on mass balance considerations and independent probability distributions defined as a function of slope DEM-derived values and a series of model input parameters. The probabilistic rules defined in the model are based on data gathered for debris flows and debris avalanches that mainly occurred in western Canada. This study mainly addresses the applicability and the reliability of this modelling approach to areas in southern Italy, in Campania region, historically affected by debris flows in pyroclastic soils. To this aim, information on inventoried debris flows is used in different study areas to evaluate the effect on the predictions of the model input parameter values, as well as of different native DEM resolutions.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingjie Yao

<p>The intermittent surge is the basic manifestation of viscous debris flow, which emerges universally over the world, especially exemplified by those in Jiangjia Gully (JJG), a valley famous for its high frequency and variety of debris flow surges. It has been found that the surges originate from various sources in the watershed, thus identifying the source areas plays a fundamental role in studying the mechanism and process of surge developing. Advancement of GIS provides an apparent convenience in geospatial analysis of the watershed, which is used as a dominate tool in this paper.</p><p>In this study the JJG is divided into 97 tributaries (sub-watershed) and the hypsometric analysis is performed for each, from which derive the height of inflection points and the gravitational potential energy, coupled with the fitted parameters of specific power function. Then the morphology parameters, including slope, roundness, vegetation and soil, are revealed in tributaries. Besides, spatial autocorrelation among tributaries is quantified both globally and locally through Moran’s I and Getis-Ord G<sub>i</sub>*, so that the HI spatial distributions are quantified and visualized. In particular, hot spots are conspicuously visible and highlight the geologic meaning of the HI when exploratory spatial data analysis is applied to the data distributions through local indices of spatial autocorrelation.</p><p>The results show that H-curves approximately present as S-shaped, and the integral values (HI) range from 0.18 to 0.69 and show positive relationship with both gravitational potential energy and the height of the inflection points. By the HI value, the tributaries are identified as in 5 phases of evolution. The younger tributaries (HI>0.49) make up the majority, which are expected to be the main possible sources for debris flows. Additionally, the slope distribution of tributaries all conform to the extreme distribution while the curves for the upstream, where the HI of tributaries generally manifest higher coupled with larger roundness, tends to skew to the right.</p><p>Finally the correlation between possible sources are explored through geospatial analysis. The spatial association in JJG provides an explanation of the debris flow source areas. Global spatial autocorrelation manifests significantly clustered (Moran’s I shows 0.449, passing the significance test) while tributaries with high HI value concentrate mainly in the Menqian Valley. Moreover, the drainage form of Menqian Valley represents a large possibility of debris flow source area with the respect of that being in Duozhao Valley.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>debris flow source area; hypsometric analysis; topographical characteristics; spatial autocorrelation; evolutionary phases</p>


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