Sediment connectivity: a framework for understanding sediment transfer at multiple scales (original) (raw)
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CATENA, 2022
Understanding erosion and sedimentation processes along the drainage network, from hillslopes to rivers and reservoirs, is essential for water resources management and river restoration. This work proposes a novel dynamic evaluation of landscape factor from modeled runoff and erosion rates from physically-based distributed hydrological modelling, to estimate event-scale sediment connectivity. Four precipitation events of moderate intensity were selected and used for model calibration. The results were used to analyze the temporal variability of connectivity and comparison with indices based on catchment relief or land-uses. Although the headwater areas of the hillslopes presented similar values for all simulated events, a progressive increase in sediment connectivity, proportional to the runoff magnitude of the event, was observed. The variability of the event-scale connectivity index was mainly controlled by parameters related to flow (riverbed roughness, rill erodibility and particle diameter) and less by land use and vegetation cover (cover fraction or interrill erodibility). Although features affecting functional connectivity caused variations between events, the obtained results agreed with indices based on relief as landscape factor. This highlights the important role of structural connectivity represented by the catchment topography. However, the 2 proposed methodology is subject to several sources of uncertainty related to event-scale model calibration, the erosion and transport processes considered and the spatial distribution of runoff. Furthermore, the geomorphological threshold for hillslope and rivers can also affect sediment connectivity, especially along the fluvial system. The results of this work highlight important future challenges in a more dynamic understanding of sediment connectivity river basins.
Fluvial landscape models and catchment-scale sediment transport
Global and Planetary Change, 2003
The need for the ability to make quantitative predictions regarding the transport of sediment within watersheds and from watersheds to the sea has never been more important than it is today. Sediment transport is at the heart of a surprising number of practical problems, ranging from the prevention of soil loss to the tracking of contaminants, and this has resulted in a rich but scattered literature. In many of these contexts, observational data has been used to develop empirical sediment transport laws. For example, the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) has been developed for use at the farm-plot scale, and the equation of Syvitski et al. [Water Resour. Res. 36(9) (2000) 2747] was developed for the world's largest river basins. In the context of fluvial geomorphology, several different but closely related sediment transport laws have been used to construct fluvial landscape models. The sediment transport formulas used by these models are a generalized form of several physically based bed-load transport formulas. Based on studies of fluvial landscape models, we now know that many measurable attributes of channelized landscapes, such as junction angles, Horton ratios, hydraulic geometry exponents, valley geometry, and longitudinal profiles, vary in a predictable manner with a few well-constrained, physical parameters. One important consequence of this success in forward modeling is that it is now feasible to solve the inverse problem of calculating regional sediment transport parameters from measurements (such as long profiles) that can easily be made from digital elevation models (DEMs). This may also make it possible to make a rational selection between alternate sediment transport laws. Since fluvial landscape models represent the state of the art in catchment sediment transport modeling, the threefold purpose of this paper is to: (1) explain the key concepts and simplifying assumptions that are common to these models; (2) explain how several current models differ from one another; and (3) highlight a few of the significant results that have been obtained in recent years. While serving mostly as an expository or overview paper, some new results for a steady state fluvial landscape model are also included.
Journal of Geophysical Research, 2003
This paper quantifies how the ratio of sediment transport on hillslopes to sediment transport in channels influences surface and channel network morphologies and the dynamics of topographic evolution. This problem is investigated by development and investigation of a simple deterministic model incorporating mass balance of sediment and runoff coupled with a law combining dispersive and concentrative sediment transport processes. Our analysis includes the identification of a new nondimensional parameter De that is a function of rainfall, system size, rock type, and hydraulic regime and that is a measure of the relative importance of fluvial and hillslope sediment transport. We show that De has an important influence on the surface morphology (e.g., total exposed surface area and interface width which reflects surface roughness and relief), channel network form (e.g., channel sinuosity), channel spacing, and timescale of surface evolution. Surface and channel network morphologies are ...
In recent decades, the dynamics of global change in developed countries has led to significant alterations in the hydrological and sediment dynamics of terraced land. Agricultural terraces were built to control overland flow and prevent erosion, acting as buffers and barriers throughout the sediment cascading system. Their abandonment and degradation increase the sensitivity of the catchment, promoting the collapse of dry‐stone walls and the reworking of stored sediment. In this study, a geomorphometric index of connectivity—derived from high‐resolution LiDAR data (0.9 pt/m, RMSE < 0.2 m)—analysed the spatial patterns of structural connectivity in a small Mediterranean catchment (4.8 km 2) characterized by a massive presence of terraces (37% of the surface area). The morphological characteristics of these anthropogenic features generated a dual effect: (a) general disconnectivity between different compartments of the catchment and (b) concentration of water and sediment flows along preferential pathways promoted by a cascade effect of collapse within the terraced areas. The fieldwork found that 73% of wall collapses were located on these pathways that showed high index of connectivity values (>Q8). This spatial matching was related to feedback dynamics between structural and functional connectivity, in which the failure of walls increases the concentration of runoff, which in turn accelerates the hydraulic processes causing their collapse. Identifying the most connected pathways within the most vulnerable structures in an integrated analysis could be a cost‐effective strategy for establishing priority areas for the management of terraced lands.
Earth Surface Dynamics, 2014
Landscape dynamics are determined by interactions amongst geomorphic processes. These interactions allow the effects of tectonic, climatic and seismic perturbations to propagate across topographic domains, and permit the impacts of geomorphic process events to radiate from their point of origin. Visual remote sensing and in situ observations do not fully resolve the spatiotemporal patterns of surface processes in a landscape. As a result, the mechanisms and scales of geomorphic connectivity are poorly understood. Because many surface processes emit seismic signals, seismology can determine their type, location and timing with a resolution that reveals the operation of integral landscapes. Using seismic records, we show how hillslopes and channels in an Alpine catchment are interconnected to produce evolving, sediment-laden flows. This is done for a convective storm, which triggered a sequence of hillslope processes and debris flows. We observe the evolution of these process events and explore the operation of two-way links between mass wasting and channel processes, which are fundamental to the dynamics of most erosional landscapes. We also track the characteristics and propagation of flows along the debris flow channel, relating changes of observed energy to the deposition/mobilization of sediments, and using the spectral content of debris flow seismic signals to qualitatively infer sediment characteristics and channel abrasion potential. This seismological approach can help to test theoretical concepts of landscape dynamics and yield understanding of the nature and efficiency of links between individual geomorphic processes, which is required to accurately model landscape dynamics under changing tectonic or climatic conditions and to anticipate the natural hazard risk associated with specific meteorological events. 1 Introduction Geomorphic processes seldom occur in isolation. Instead, multiple processes acting on different parts of the landscape tend to occur together, in linked, two-way fashion during geomorphic events. The nature and efficiency of these interactions determines landscape response to external forcing. Hillslopes and channels in active landscapes are coupled through the effects of sediment transfer (Whipple, 2004). Hillslope processes supply sediment to streams (Hovius et al., 2000), which use it to carve their channel beds (Sklar and Dietrich, 2001; Attal and Lavé, 2006; Turowski et al., 2007; Cook et al., 2013). Channel erosion, in turn, can undercut hillslopes and cause further slope erosion (Densmore et al., 1997). This two-way link between channels and slopes permits the tectonic deformation of river long profiles (Burbank et al., 1996; Snyder et al., 2000; Attal et al., 2008) and climatic forcing to affect erosion on adjacent hillslopes (Korup et al., 2010). Similarly, the impact of climate on mass wasting can propagate downward into the fluvial system (Page et al., 1994; Wobus et al., 2010), adjusting the balance of river sediment load and transport capacity and associated channel dynamics
Comparison of conceptual landscape metrics to define hillslope-scale sediment delivery ratio
Geomorphology, 2012
The aim of this study was to evaluate four metrics to define the spatially variable (regionalised) hillslope sediment delivery ratio (HSDR). A catchment model that accounted for gully and streambank erosion and floodplain deposition was used to isolate the effects of hillslope gross erosion and hillslope delivery from other landscape processes. The analysis was carried out at the subcatchment (~40 km 2 ) and the cell scale (400 m 2 ) in the Avon-Richardson catchment (3300 km 2 ), south-east Australia. The four landscape metrics selected for the study were based on sediment travel time, sediment transport capacity, flux connectivity, and residence time. Model configurations with spatially-constant or regionalised HSDR were calibrated against sediment yield measured at five gauging stations. The impact of using regionalised HSDR was evaluated in terms of improved model performance against measured sediment yields in a nested monitoring network, the complexity and data requirements of the metric, and the resulting spatial relationship between hillslope erosion and landscape factors in the catchment and along hillslope transects. The introduction of a regionalised HSDR generally improved model predictions of specific sediment yields at the subcatchment scale, increasing model efficiency from 0.48 to N 0.6 in the best cases. However, the introduction of regionalised HSDR metrics at the cell scale did not improve model performance. The flux connectivity was the most promising metric because it showed the largest improvement in predicting specific sediment yields, was easy to implement, was scale-independent and its formulation was consistent with sedimentological connectivity concepts. These properties make the flux connectivity metric preferable for applications to catchments where climatic conditions can be considered homogeneous, i.e. in small-medium sized basins (up to approximately 3000 km 2 for Australian conditions, with the Avon-Richardson catchment being at the upper boundary). The residence time metric improved model assessment of sediment yields and enabled accounting for climatic variability on sediment delivery, but at the cost of greater complexity and data requirements; this metric might be more suitable for application in catchments with important climatic gradients, i.e. large basins and at the regional scale. The application of a regionalised HSDR metric did not increase data or computational requirements substantially, and is recommended to improve assessment of hillslope erosion in empirical, semi-lumped erosion modelling applications. However, more research is needed to assess the quality of spatial patterns of erosion depicted by the different landscape metrics.
Journal of Mountain Science
Torrential processes are among the main actors responsible for sediment production and mobility in mountain catchments. For this reason, the understanding of preferential pathways for sediment routing has become a priority in hazard assessment and mitigation. In this context, the sediment Connectivity Index (IC) enables to analyse the existing linkage between sediment sources and the selected target (channel network or catchment outlet). The IC is a grid-based index that allows fast computation of sediment connectivity based on landscape information derived from a single Digital Terrain Model (DTM). The index computation is based on the log-ratio between an upslope and a downslope component, including information about drainage area, slope, terrain roughness, and distance to the analysis target (e.g. outlet). The output is a map that highlights the degree of structural connectivity of sediment pathways over analysed catchments. Until now, these maps are however rarely used to help d...
Inferring sediment transfers and functional connectivity of rivers from repeat topographic surveys
Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 2020
High-resolution topographic models have revolutionized monitoring of river changes by comparing sequential river topographic surveys (i.e. change detection). Nevertheless, much more may be obtained from this innovative quantification of changes. In this paper, we enhance the interpretation of geomorphic processes by presenting a new method for understanding of sources and sinks of sediment, river sediment transfers and functional sediment connectivity. Repeat digital elevation models (DEMs) obtained by photogrammetry were used to quantify topographic change after two floods by creating a DEM of difference (DoD) of a 6.5 km-long reach of Rambla de la Viuda stream, an ephemeral gravel-bed river in eastern Spain. The proposed method involved dividing the channel into 10 m-long longitudinal strips that were used to systematically draw boundaries between the erosional and depositional areas of the DoD. The analysis objectively: (i) drew a series of erosional and depositional segments, from 120 to 1360 m in length; (ii) estimated ranges of source-to-storage sediment transport distances, 320-670 m in the upstream and middle reaches and up to 2030 m in the lower reach; and (iii) obtained values of functional connectivity (i.e. the ratio between the sediment exported (erosion) and retained (deposition), ranging from 10 3 to 10 À3). The variability in these three parameters along the river was found to be related to the level of channel disturbance by in-stream mining during the 1990s and 2000s. Additionally, this method indicates that the main process responsible for self-adjustment of the present morphosedimentary conditions is intra-reach erosion of banks and channel beds. Thus, this study proposes a new methodology to characterize morphological change, sediment transfer and connectivity that may serve as environmental indicators of the hydromorphological integrity of rivers with potential application to the European Water Framework Directive.
What do models tell us about water and sediment connectivity?
Geomorphology, 2020
Connectivity has been embraced by the geosciences community as a useful concept to understand and describe hydrological functioning and sediment movement through catchments. Mathematical modelling has been used for decades to quantify and predict erosion and transport of sediments, e.g. in scenarios of land use change or conservation measures. Being intrigued by both models and the connectivity concept, as a group of modellers we aimed at investigating what different models could tell us about connectivity. Therefore, we evaluated the response of contrasted spatially-distributed models to landscape connectivity features and explained the differences based on different model structures. A total of 53 scenarios were built with varying field sizes and orientations, as well as the implementation of soil conservation measures. These scenarios were simulated, for two rainfall intensities, with five event-and process-based water and soil erosion models-EROSION3D, FullSWOF_2D, LandSoil, OpenLISEM and Watersed. Results showed that rainfall amount plays the most important role in determining relative export and connected area of runoff and sediment in all models, indicating that functional aspects of connectivity were more important than structural connectivity. As for the role of structural landscape elements, there was no overall agreement between models regarding the effects of field sizes, crop allocation pattern, and conservation practices; agreement was also low on the spatial patterns of connectivity. This overall disagreement between models was unexpected. The results of this exercise suggest that the correct parameterization of runoff and sediment production and of routing patterns may be an important issue. Thus, incorporating connectivity functions based on routing would help modelling forward. Our results also suggest that structural connectivity indices may not suffice to represent connectivity in this type of catchment (relatively simple and monotonous land cover), and functional connectivity indices should be applied.
2011
Soil material exported from river catchments by soil erosion is a key issue in environmental sustainability. Although soil erosion processes have been thoroughly investigated, their dynamics, specifically the continuity of erosion processes and sediment source locality, are less studied. The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the changes in the fluxes and characteristics of sediments during their downslope and downstream transport. The study was conducted in a 1000 ha catchment of the Drakensberg foothills, South Africa. Sediment fluxes were monitored at nested scales during the 2009-2011 rainy seasons using 1×1m and 2×5 m erosion plots and H-flumes coupled to automatic samplers from 23 ha, 100 ha catchments. In addition, soil texture, colour and total organic carbon and nitrogen contents in sediments exported from the nested scales and a 1000 ha catchment were compared to in-situ surface and sub-surface soil horizons in a 23 ha catchment river bank and hillslope soils and fluvial sediments. There was a sharp increase of sediment fluxes with increasing slope length (846±201 gm-1 y-1 for 1 m 2 vs 6820±1714 gm-1 y-1 for 10 m 2), revealing a limited contribution of splash erosion compared to rain-impacted flow erosion. Sediment fluxes decreased to 500±100 gm-1 y-1 and 100±10 gm-1 y-1 at the 23 ha and 100 ha catchments respectively, indicating the occurrence of sedimentation during sediment downslope and downstream transport. A principal component analysis (PCA) suggested that rain impacted flow erosion efficiency at the 10 m 2 scale was significantly correlated with soil bulk density, clay content and antecedent rainfall (P<0.05). Moreover, strong correlations existed between runoff, sediment concentration and soil loss and selected soil surface and environmental variables at the plot scales. Correlations became weaker at the catchment scales due to increasing landscape heterogeneity and the complexity of soil erosion dynamics. An additional PCA suggested that stream bank erosion contributed to 63% of the soil loss from the 23 ha catchment. During their downstream transport, sediments were discriminated by the second PCA axis, which correlated with the clay and fine silt content, 100 ha sediments showed negative coordinates to this axis while 1000 ha catchment sediment had positive coordinates. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the following individuals who all aided in the compiling of this document. Your contributions are greatly appreciated. My supervisors, Prof. Vincent Chaplot Prof. Simon Lorentz and Dr. Louis Titshall for their consistent guidance regarding every aspect of the research process. Your supervision is has helped me grow in numerous great and unexpected ways. Special thanks are extended to the Water Research Commission (WRC), the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the School of Bioresources Engineering and Environmental Hydrology (SBEEH) for funding this research. I am especially grateful to Dr. Alan Manson and the Cedara Staff for the chemical analysis of the soil and sediment samples. Prof. Jeff Hughes for his comments and corrections on the earlier drafts of this dissertation.