Sediment Dynamics for

The Structure, Functioning and Management of Fluvial Sediment Systems

Overbank sedimentation rates on the flood plains of small rivers in Central European Russia V. N. Golosov, V. R. Belyaev, M. V. Markelov & K. S. Kislenko		129
Deposition of overbank sediments within a regulated reach of the upper Odra River, Poland Agnieszka Czajka & Dariusz Ciszewski		137
Sediments of the Yenisei River: monitoring of radionuclide levels and estimation of sedimentation rates Alexander Bolsunovsky & Dmitry Dementyev		143
Preliminary investigation of the potential for using the ^137Cs technique to date sediment deposits in karst depressions and to estimate rates of soil loss from karst catchments in southwest China X. B. Zhang, X. Y. Bai & A. B. Wen		149
The assessment of natural and artificial radionuclides in river sediments in the Czech Republic Diana Ivanovová, Eduard Hanslík & Pavel Stierand		157
Exploring the relationship between sediment and fallout radionuclide output for two small Calabrian catchments Paolo Porto, Desmond E. Walling, Giovanni Callegari & Carmelo La Spada		163
Long-term monitoring of the ^137Cs activity in suspended sediment transported by the Homerka stream, Polish Flysch Carpathians Wojciech Froehlich & Desmond E. Walling		172
Sediment dynamics of glacier-fed rivers Jim Bogen		181
Variations in suspended sediment grain sizes in flood events of a small lowland river Leszek Hejduk & Kazimierz Banasik		189
The impact of road construction on suspended sediment and solute yields of headwater streams in northern Apennine, Italy Samanta Pelacani, Giuliano Rodolfi & Fiorenzo Cesare Ugolini		197
Historic sediment yields in a small ungauged catchment controlled by a warping dam, using sediment deposition information and ^137Cs dating Li Zhan-Bin, Lu Ke-Xin, Hou Jian-Cai & Li Mian		204
The importance of sediment control for recovery of incised channels W. D. Erskine, A. C. Chalmers & M. Townley-Jones		211
The influence of density fronts on sediment dynamics within river-to-sea estuarine transitional waters Robert W. Duck		220
Sedimentation in the riparian zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir, China Yuhai Bao, Hongwei Nan, Xiubin He, Yi Long & Xinbao Zhang		224
Application of sediment studies to the management and planning of water resources in the Sydney region Anna K. Sim, Wayne D. Erskine & Russell Drysdale		229
Observations on flow hydraulics in a gauging station of a small stream with high suspended sediment load (Vallcebre, eastern Pyrenees) Guillaume Nord, Montserrat Soler, Jérôme Latron & Francesc Gallart		238
Assessing riverine sediment–pathogen dynamics: implications for the management of aquatic and human health risk Ian G. Droppo, Kristen King, Sandra M. Tirado, Andrew Sousa, Gideon Wolfaardt, Steven N. Liss & Lesley A. Warren		245
Salmon as biogeomorphic agents: temporal and spatial effects on sediment quantity and quality in a northern British Columbia spawning channel Ellen L. Petticrew & Sam J. Albers		251
Sediment impacts on aquatic ecosystems of the Bukit Merah Reservoir, Perak, Malaysia Wan Ruslan Ismail, Zullyadini A. Rahaman, Sumayyah Aimi Mohd Najib & Zainudin Othman		258
Determination of the geochemical baseline for the East River basin, China Lincoln Fok & Mervyn R. Peart		264
4	Experiment-based and Modelling Approaches to Sediment Research
The use of instrumentally collected-composite samples to estimate the annual fluxes of suspended sediment and sediment-associated chemical constituents Arthur J. Horowitz		273
Long-term sediment transport and delivery of the largest distributary of the Mississippi River, the Atchafalaya, USA Y. Jun Xu		282
Tracing spatial sources of suspended sediment in the Ohio River basin, USA, using water quality data from the NASQAN programme Yusheng Zhang, Adrian L. Collins &Arthur J. Horowitz		291
High resolution quantification of slope-channel coupling in an alpine geosystem Martin Bimböse, Karl-Heinz Schmidt & David Morche		300
Integrated runoff-erosion modelling in the Brazilian Water Resources Information System (SNIRH) Celso A. G. Santos, Cristiano Das N. Almeida, Amílcar Soares Júnior, Francisco A. R. Barbosa, Tiago F. Souza & Paula Karenina De M. M. Freire		308
An ANN-based approach to modelling sediment yield: a case study in a semi-arid area of Brazil Camilo A. S. de Farias, Francismário M. Alves, Celso A. G. Santos & Koichi Suzuki		316
Use of the SWAT model to evaluate the impact of different land use scenarios on discharge and sediment transport in the Apucaraninha River watershed, southern Brazil Irani Dos Santos, Marcos V. Andriolo, Rosana C. Gibertoni & Masato Kobiyama		322
Comparative analysis of two distributed soil erosion and sediment yield models in Sichuan Basin, China Yuan Zaijian, Chu Yingmin, Shen Yanjun, Liu Chang & Fu Ya’Nan		329
Effect of topographic scale on the estimation of soil erosion rates using an empirical model Yulia S. Kuznetsova, Vladimir R. Belyaev & Valentin N. Golosov		334
Modelling lowland reservoir sedimentation conditions and the potential environmental consequences of dam removal: Wloclawek Reservoir, Vistula River, Poland Artur Magnuszewski, Sharon Moran & Guoliang Yu		345
Incorporating pedotransfer functions into the MOSEE model to simulate runoff and soil erosion at different scales Eduardo E. de Figueiredo & Anthony J. Parsons		353
How important is sediment graph development in Iran? Seyed Hamidreza Sadeghi		361
Application of an XML-based genetic algorithm to a rainfall–runoff erosion model Amílcar Soares Júnior, Celso A. G. Santos, Gustavo H. M. B. Motta, Francisco A. R. Barbosa & Paula K. M. M. Freire		366
Key word index		375

P

reface

Since the early 1980s, the International Commission on Continental Erosion (ICCE) of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) has organized a large number of highly successful symposia and workshops dealing with various aspects of erosion and sedimentation. The proceedings of most of these symposia and workshops have been published as IAHS ‘red books’; see over for details, and the IAHS website: www.iahs.info.

The Warsaw symposium on Sediment Dynamics for a Changing Future continues the highly successful ongoing series of ICCE symposia and the papers have been prepublished in this IAHS ‘red book’. The response to the call for papers for the symposium exceeded the organisers’ expectations (more than 100 abstracts), and should be viewed as an indication of the increasing significance of sediment-related issues to both the environmental and scientific communities. The topic is also particularly important for practitioners and policy makers in Poland and other European countries, because of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, which establishes a legal framework to protect and restore river systems across Europe and ensure their long-term, sustainable use. The 48 papers published in this volume, which include three keynote papers, aim to advance our understanding of the processes of erosion and sedimentation in relation to sediment dynamics and water quality. The keynote papers have been placed at the beginning of the volume and the remaining papers have been grouped into three main themes. The group of papers dealing with Human Impact on Sediment Budgets are primarily concerned with the influence of land-use change on catchment sediment yields and/or fluxes. A group of papers on The Structure, Functioning and Management of Fluvial Sediment Systems provide valuable information on a range of topics, including the dynamics of flood plain sedimentation, temporal variation of sediment parameters and the important influence of sediment on aquatic ecosystems. The third group of papers dealing with Experiment-based and Modelling Approaches to Sediment Research highlight the important role of both monitoring and modelling studies in generating an improved understanding of catchment sediment dynamics, sediment fluxes and river water quality. We hope that these papers encourage further research on how sediment dynamics will respond to future changes in climate and land use.

Kazimierz Banasik

Department of Water Engineering and Environmental Restoration
Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW, PL-02-787 Warsaw
Poland
Arthur J. Horowitz

US Geological Survey, Peachtree Business Center
3039 Amwiler Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30360
USA
Philip N. Owens

Environmental Science Program & Quesnel River Research Centre
University of Northern British Columbia
Prince George, British Columbia V2N 4Z9
Canada
Mike Stone

Department of Geography and Environmental Management
University of Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1
Canada
Des E. Walling

Department of Geography, University of Exeter
Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ
UK

Previous ICCE events include:
Symposium on Erosion and Sediment Transport Measurement (Florence, 1981, Publ. 133*)

Symposium on Recent Developments in the Explanation and Prediction of Erosion and Sediment Yield (Exeter, 1982, Publ. 137)

Symposium on Dissolved Loads of Rivers and Water Quantity/Quality Relationship (Hamburg, 1983,
Publ. 141)

Symposium on Drainage Basin Sediment Delivery (Albuquerque – New Mexico, 1986, Publ. 159)

Workshop on Erosion, Transport and Deposition Processes (Jerusalem, 1987, Publ. 189)

Symposium on Sediment Budgets (Porto Alegre, 1988, Publ. 174)

Symposium on Sediment and the Environment (Baltimore, 1989, Publ. 184)

Symposium on Erosion, Debris Flows and Environment in Mountain Regions (Chengdu, 1992, Publ. 209)

Symposium on Erosion and Sediment Transport Monitoring Programmes in River Basins (Oslo, 1992,
Publ. 210)

Symposium on Sediment Problems: Strategies for Monitoring, Prediction and Control (Yokohama, 1993, Publ. 217)

Symposium on Variability in Stream Erosion and Sediment Transport (Canberra, 1994, Publ. 224)

Symposium on the Effect of Scale on the Interpretation and Management of Sediment and Water Quality (Boulder, 1995, Publ. 226)

Symposium on Erosion and Sediment Yield: Global and Regional Perspectives (Exeter, 1996, Publ. 236)

Symposium on Human Impact on Erosion and Sedimentation (Rabat, 1997, Publ. 245)

Symposium on Modelling Soil Erosion, Sediment Transport and Closely Related Processes (Vienna, 1998, Publ. 249)

Symposium on the Role of Erosion and Sediment Transport in Nutrient and Contaminant Transfer (Waterloo, 2000, Publ. 263)

Workshop on Erosion and Sediment Transport Measurement in Rivers: Technological and Methodological Advances (Oslo, 2002, Publ. 283)

Symposium on the Structure, Function and Management Implication of Fluvial Sedimentary Systems (Alice Springs, 2002, Publ. 276)

Symposium on Erosion Prediction in Ungauged Basins: Integrating Methods and Techniques (Sapporo, 2003, Publ. 279)

Symposium on Sediment Transport through the Fluvial System (Moscow, 2004, Publ. 288)

Symposium on Sediment Budgets (Foz do Iguacu, 2005, Publs 291 and 292)

Symposium on Sediment Dynamics and the Hydromorphology of Fluvial Systems (Dundee, 2006, Publ. 306)

Symposium on Water Quality of the Future; Predicting Water Quality in the 21st Century (Perugia, 2007, Publ. 314)

Workshop on the Impact of Environmental Change on Sediment Sources and Sediment Delivery (Perugia, 2007)

Symposium on Sediment Dynamics in Changing Environments (Christchurch, 2008, Publ. 325)

Workshop on Sediment Problems and Sediment Management in Asian River Basins (Hyderabad, 2009)

* Publ. 133 refers to the publication number in the IAHS Publications series (the red books). Details of these publications are available at www.iahs.info/redbooks.htm. Books published before 2002 (Publs 1 to 269) can be downloaded as pdf files from the website without charge.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sediment Dynamics for a Changing Future (Proceedings of the ICCE symposium held at Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW, Poland, 14–18 June 2010). IAHS Publ. 337, 2010, 3-16.

Using fallout radionuclides to investigate erosion and sediment delivery: some recent advances
D. E. WALLING

School of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RJ, UK

[e-mail]
Abstract Increasing concern for the offsite impacts of soil erosion and the effects of fine sediment in degrading aquatic habitats and ecosystems has produced new information requirements for sediment studies. There is a need for information on the internal functioning of the catchment, in terms of sediment sources, transfers, sinks and outputs and the catchment sediment budget. Sediment tracers, and particularly fallout radionuclides, provide an effective means of assembling such data and there is a need to combine traditional monitoring techniques with such tracing techniques. Fallout radionuclide tracers have now been successfully used for many years, but their potential remains to be fully realised. This contribution describes five areas in which advances have recently been made. These include the use of ¹³⁷Cs measurements to document the change in erosion rates caused by changes in land management, upscaling the ¹³⁷Cs approach to provide reconnaissance assessments of soil loss at the regional or national scale, improvement of existing approaches to the use of ⁷Be, to permit consideration of longer periods, the conjunctive use of ¹³⁷Cs and ⁷Be to assess the magnitude of recent changes in erosion rates and the use of Chernobyl fallout to provide an improved chronology for interpreting the sedimentary archives provided by overbank flood plain deposits.

Key words erosion; sediment delivery; fallout radionuclides; tracers; caesium-137; beryllium-7

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sediment Dynamics for a Changing Future (Proceedings of the ICCE symposium held at Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW, Poland, 14–18 June 2010). IAHS Publ. 337, 2010, 17-26.

1Erosion and sedimentation research in agricultural watersheds in the USA: from past to present and beyond

M. J .M. Römkens

USDA-ARS National Sedimentation Laboratory, PO Box 1157, Oxford, Mississippi, USA

[e-mail]
Abstract In ancient times, sediment and sedimentation were a blessing that brought fertility to the land and made it possible for people to live and prosper. This is the story of the Egyptians in the Nile Delta where they lived this way for thousands of years in harmony with annual floods that brought soil and nutrients to the land. In other places, sediment and sedimentation proved to be valuable for gaining new land (the Netherlands). But then in other places, and in recent times, sediment was seen as a nuisance that caused flooding, destroyed or damaged human habitat, and adversely impacted productive land because of excessive sedimentation. This article briefly discusses how erosion and sedimentation research in agriculture came to be what it is today in the USA. That experience has in many ways guided today’s erosion and sedimentation research programmes and conservation efforts around the world. Secondly, and again in a limited way, the current focus of erosion and sedimentation research in the USA will be described as well as the problems the USA faces today and how they are addressed.

Keywords erosion; sedimentation; sediment; TMDL; CEAP; dam removal; watershed models

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Grain erosion – an intense form of rock erosion
ZHAOYIN WANG, DANDAN LIU & WENJING SHI

State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China

[e-mail]
Abstract Grain erosion is defined as the phenomenon of physically breaking down bare rocks. Bare rocks are caused by avalanches, landslides and human activities. Grain erosion causes flying stones that can injure humans, and results in numerous slope debris flows. The process of grain erosion is studied by field investigations and experiments. The rocks are broken down to grains under the action of insolation and temperature change. Then, wind detaches the grains from the bare rock, the grains flow downslope under the action of gravity, and the grains accumulate at the toe of the hillslope forming a depositional fan. The most serious grain erosion occurs in spring and early summer when it is very hot and dry. Experimental results showed that the number of grains blown by wind, per area of rock surface per unit time, is proportional to the fourth power of the wind speed; however, the size of the grains increases linearly with the wind speed.

Keywords erosion; Wenchuan earthquake, China; bare rocks; debris flow; wind

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Impact of land use activities on fine sediment-associated contaminants, Quesnel River Basin, British Columbia, Canada
TYLER B. SMITH & PHILIP N. OWENS

Environmental Science Program & Quesnel River Research Centre, University of Northern British Columbia,
Prince George, British Columbia V2N 4Z9, Canada

[e-mail]
Abstract The impact of various land use activities (forestry, mining, and agriculture) on the quality of fine-grained sediment (<63 µm) was investigated in the Quesnel River Basin (approx. 12 000 km²) in British Columbia, Canada. Samples of fine-grained sediment were collected monthly during the snow-free season in 2008 using time-integrated isokinetic samplers at sites representative of forestry, mining, and agricultural activities in the basin. Samples were also collected from replicate control sites that had undergone limited or no disturbance in recent years, and also from the main stem of the Quesnel River. Generally, metal and nutrient concentrations for “impacted” sites were greater than for control sites. Concentrations of As (mining sites), Cu (forestry sites) and Zn (forestry sites) were close to or exceeded upper Sediment Quality Guideline (SQG) thresholds, while Se concentrations for mining sites were elevated and within the range cited for contaminated environments. Phosphorus values were generally <1000 μg g^-1 for all land use activities and below available SQGs. Values for individual samples were, however, greater than upper SQG levels, such as 22.7 μg g^-1 (As), 801 μg g^-1 (Cu), 5.0 μg g^-1 (Se) and 2192 μg g^-1 (P). These preliminary results suggest that metal mining and forest harvesting are having a greater influence on the concentration of sediment-associated metals and nutrients in the Quesnel basin, than agricultural activities.

Key words sediment quality; land use; mining; contaminants; metals; aquatic ecosystems; cohesive sediment
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