Quantifying human impacts on catchment sediment yield: A continental approach

Catchment area; Europe; Land use; Lithology; Mediterranean; Seismic activity; Soil erosion; Topography; Correlation methods; Environmental management; Erosion; Regression analysis; Reservoirs (water); Runoff; Sediments; Catchments

Abstract :

[en] Both from a scientific and environmental management perspective, there is a large need to assess the magnitude and controlling factors of human impacts on catchment sediment yield. Quantifying this impact is difficult, since it requires knowing both the actual sediment yield (SY<inf>a</inf>, [tkm-2 y-1]) as well as the corresponding "pristine" value of a catchment (SY<inf>p</inf>, [tkm-2 y-1]; i.e. the sediment yield that can be expected if the catchment was not affected by humans). Here we address this problem by comparing measured SY<inf>a</inf> values for 165 European catchments that were unaffected by dams or reservoirs with their corresponding SY<inf>p</inf>, which were predicted using a recently developed regression model. The ratio between these two values is expected to reflect the degree of human impact on catchment sediment yield (HIF).Correlation and partial correlation analyses showed that spatial variability in HIF is mainly explained by differences in land use (i.e. the fraction of arable land) and catchment area. The effect of these two factors was clearly linked in western and central Europe: whereas SY<inf>a</inf> can be easily 40 times higher than SY<inf>p</inf> in intensively cultivated small (≤1km2) catchments, the difference is negligible for large (>1000km2) catchments with the same land use. While, this concurs with our knowledge that the effects of land use (change) on erosion rates can be buffered at the catchment scale, this study provides a first robust quantification of this effect.Apart from a potential climatic effect (i.e. a correlation between HIF and the average annual air temperature) no other factors could be identified that are significant in explaining observed differences in HIF. This indicates that HIF is mainly controlled by catchment scale and land use, while other factors may be only of secondary importance at an intra-continental scale. Nonetheless, more accurate quantifications of these HIF values and more refined characterizations of the catchments in terms of (historical) land use, soil types/lithology, weather conditions and topography may reveal additional trends. 1000km2. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.

Disciplines :

Earth sciences & physical geography

Author, co-author :

Vanmaercke, Matthias ; Université de Liège > Département de géographie > Géographie physique et du quaternaire

Poesen, J.; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium

Govers, G.; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium

Verstraeten, G.; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

Quantifying human impacts on catchment sediment yield: A continental approach

Publication date :

2015

Journal title :

Global and Planetary Change

ISSN :

0921-8181

Publisher :

Elsevier

Volume :

130

Pages :

22-36

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 28 March 2017

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