Effect of slope steepness parameter computations on soil loss estimation: review of methods using GIS

In the analysis of soil loss equation, the researchers have suggested two methods of deriving the slope steepness parameter. One method is having percentage slope term, while the other method is having sinθ as its term. In this paper, both the methods were analysed and compared in soil loss computation using Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, over a Gangapur catchment area in India, having steep slopes. The soil loss rates derived were 0.98 million tonnes per year in case of steepness parameter derived by sinθ and 1.226 million tonnes per year in case of steepness parameter derived by percentage slope term. The observed rate of soil loss is 1.23 million tonnes per year. This methodology of soil loss estimation was also validated with similar catchment of Punegaon dam. It is concluded that for medium to steep terrain, percentage slope method estimates more accurate soil loss than other empirical methods for slope steepness estimation.     

The responses of hydrological processes and sediment yield to land‐use and climate change in the Be River Catchment,Vietnam

In this study, we investigated the responses of hydrology and sediment yield with impacts of land‐use and climate change scenarios in the Be River Catchment, using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model. The calibration and validation results indicated that the SWAT model is a powerful tool for simulating the impact of environmental change on hydrology and sediment yield in this catchment. The hydrologic and sediment yield responses to land‐use and climate changes were simulated based on the calibrated model. The results indicated that a 16.3% decrease in forest land is likely to increase streamflow (0.2 to 0.4%), sediment load (1.8 to 3.0%), and surface runoff (SURQ) (4.8 to 10.7%) and to decrease groundwater discharge (GW_Q) (3.5 to 7.9%). Climate change in the catchment leads to decreases in streamflow (0.7 to 6.9%) and GW_Q (3.0 to 8.4%), increase in evapotranspiration (0.5 to 2.9%), and changes in SURQ (?5.3 to 2.3%) and sediment load (?5.3 to 4.4%). The combined impacts of land‐use and climate changes decrease streamflow (2.0 to 3.9%) and GW_Q (12.3 to 14.0%), increase evapotranspiration (0.7 to 2.8%), SURQ (8.2 to 12.4%), and sediment load (2.0 to 7.9%). In general, the separate impacts of climate and land‐use changes on streamflow, sediment load, and water balance components are offset each other. However, SURQ and some component of subsurface flow are more sensitive to land‐use change than to climate change. Furthermore, the results emphasized water scarcity during the dry season and increased soil erosion during the wet season. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gold enrichment characteristics and exploration prospects in Zambia: Based on 1∶1000000 geochemical mapping

The 1∶1000000 geochemical mapping of Zambia provides catchment sediment geochemical data for 58elements including Au from 746 sediment samples at 736 sampling sites,corresponding to a sampling density of about one site per 1000 km2.Under strict quality control using field duplicates,certified reference materials,and analytical replicate samples,the Au was determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry(ICP-MS).The detection limit of Au was 0.20×10^-9.The 95%range(2.5%–97.5%)of Au concentrations was from 0.24×10^-9 to 1.36×10^-9,and the median value was 0.40×10^-9.The most noticeable Au distribution patterns shown on the map are mainly located between Lusaka and Ndola(Lufilian Arc Belt).In addition,several high Au value areas occurred in Mansa,Muyombe,Chipata,and Livingstone.The spatial distribution patterns of Au in tectonic units,drainage basins,and geomorphological landscapes could be related to the Lufilian Arc Belt and Bangweulu Block.The Au concentrations show metallogenic belts between Muyombe and Mbala areas,between Mansa and Ndola areas,and between Lusaka and Kasempa areas.     

Variability of natural effluents as an indicator of groundwater retention in the Carpathian foothills (southern Poland)

 Research into the patterns of natural underground water effluents has been conducted in a small catchment basin (Wierzbanówka) that is representative of the Carpathian foothills. The aim of this study was to understand the long-term dynamics of the effluents and their responses to natural and artificial factors in order to estimate groundwater resources. High variability of the effluent patterns in the Carpathian foothills is a result of precipitation fluctuations, low ground retention capacity, a low rate of absorption in the flysch rock formation areas, and of the Quaternary covers. In addition, the dominance of agricultural land use, low forest coverage, and poor hydrological management are the main causes of this variability. Any local increase in underground water resources would only be possible if forests were planted on some of the agricultural land and changes were made to water management. Received: 16 August 1999 · Accepted: 12 January 2000     

A review of runoff generation and soil erosion across scales in semiarid south-eastern Spain

Climate, lithology, soil and especially, intense land use/cover changes, make SE Spain very vulnerable to runoff generation and water erosion leading to loss of nutrients and organic matter and to infrequent but devastating floods, reservoir siltation and mass failures. This susceptibility has led to heavy economic investment and research efforts since the 1980s, making this region a worldwide reference for understanding the hydrology and geomorphology of semiarid ecosystems. Runoff and soil erosion have been intensively studied throughout the last decades in various natural ecosystems as well as in abandoned farmlands. Research has considered a wide range of methods and spatial and temporal scales. This paper reviews the methods and data describing runoff generation and water erosion, synthesising the key processes involved, rates, thresholds and controlling factors from a scale-dependent perspective. It also identifies the major gaps in current knowledge to provide recommendations for further research towards solutions that reduce the negative impacts of erosion. Research in SE Spain has contributed significantly to a better understanding of the effect of spatial and temporal scale on runoff and sediment yield measurements, and highlighted the important role of distinct erosion and sediment transport processes, hydrologic connectivity, spatial and temporal patterns of rainfall, the occurrence of extreme events and the impacts of land use changes. The most effective ways and challenges to predict runoff, soil erosion and sediment yield at the catchment scale are also discussed.     

The response of lake-glacier variations to climate change in Nam Co Catchment,central Tibetan Plateau,during 1970–2000

Based upon the 1970 aero-photo topographic map, and TM/ETM satellite images taken in 1991 and 2000, the authors artificially interpreted boundaries of lake and glaciers in Nam Co Catchment, and quantified lake-glacier area variations in different stages by ＂integrated method＂ with the support of GIS. Results show that from 1970 to 2000, lake area increased from 1942.34 km^2 to 1979.79 km^2 at a rate of 1.27 km^2/a, while glacier area decreased from 167.62 km^2 to 141.88 km^2 at a rate of 0.86 km^2/a. The increasing rate of lake in 1991-2000 was 1.76 km^2/a that was faster than 1.03 km^2/a in 1970-1991, while in the same period of time, the shrinking rates of glaciers were 0.97 km^2/a and 0.80 km^2/a respectively. Important factors, relevant to lake and glacier response to the climate, such as air temperature, precipitation, potential evapotranspiration and their values in warm and cold seasons, were discussed. The result suggests that temperature increasing is the main reason for the accelerated melting of glaciers. Lake expansion is mainly induced by the increase of the glacier melting water, increase of precipitation and obvious decrease of potential evapotranspiration. Precipitation, evaporation and their linkages with lake enlargement on regional scale need to be thoroughly studied under the background of global warming and glacier retreating.     

Use of Gene Expression Programming in regionalization of flow duration curve

In this paper, a recently introduced artificial intelligence technique known as Gene Expression Programming (GEP) has been employed to perform symbolic regression for developing a parametric scheme of flow duration curve (FDC) regionalization, to relate selected FDC characteristics to catchment characteristics. Stream flow records of selected catchments located in the Auckland Region of New Zealand were used. FDCs of the selected catchments were normalised by dividing the ordinates by their median value. Input for the symbolic regression analysis using GEP was (a) selected characteristics of normalised FDCs; and (b) 26 catchment characteristics related to climate, morphology, soil properties and land cover properties obtained using the observed data and GIS analysis. Our study showed that application of this artificial intelligence technique expedites the selection of a set of the most relevant independent variables out of a large set, because these are automatically selected through the GEP process. Values of the FDC characteristics obtained from the developed relationships have high correlations with the observed values.     

Estimating the effects of spatial variability of infiltration on the output of a distributed runoff and soil erosion model using Monte Carlo methods

Monte Carlo procedures were used to evaluate the effects of spatial variations in the values of the infiltration parameter on the results of the ANSWERS distributed runoff and erosion model. Simulation results obtained were compared with measured values. Field infiltration measurements indicated spatial correlation at much smaller distances than the size of an element. Therefore, at first only the error of the mean had to be taken into consideration for block infiltration rates. Consequently, not only single hydrographs were produced, but also error bands. Secondly, nine other hypothetical spatial correlation structures were also evaluated using Monte Carlo methods. in particular at low nugget variances, increasing spatial correlation of infiltration resulted in increasing coefficients of variation in model outputs. In general, rainstorms with low rainfall intensities were more difficult to simulate accurately than extreme events with high rainfall intensities. This is explained by the greater influence of the infiltration uncertainties at low rainfall intensities.     

Deriving drainage networks and catchment boundaries: a new methodology combining digital elevation data and environmental characteristics

Digital data on the position and characteristics of river networks and catchments are important for the analysis of pressures and impacts on water resources. GIS tools allow for the combined analysis of digital elevation data and environmental parameters in order to derive this kind of information. This article presents a new approach making use of medium-resolution digital elevation data (250-m grid cell size) and information on climate, vegetation cover, terrain morphology, soils and lithology to derive river networks and catchments over extended areas.In general, methods to extract channel networks at small scale use a constant threshold for the critical contributing area, independent of widely varying landscape conditions. As a consequence, the resulting drainage network does not reflect the natural variability in drainage density. To overcome this limitation, a classification of the landscape is proposed. The various data available are analysed in an integrated approach in order to characterise the terrain with respect to its ability to develop lower or higher drainage densities, resulting in five landscape types. For each landscape type, the slope–area relationship is then derived and the critical contributing area is determined. In the subsequent channel extraction, a dedicated critical contributing area threshold is used for each landscape type.The described methodology has been developed and tested for the territory of Italy. Results have been validated comparing the derived data with river and catchment data sets from other sources and at varying scales. Good agreement both in terms of river superimposition and drainage density could be demonstrated.     

A catchment water balance model for estimating groundwater recharge in arid and semiarid regions of south-east Iran

This paper presents a new model of the rainfall-runoff-groundwater flow processes applicable to semiarid and arid catchments in south-east Iran. The main purpose of the model is to assess the groundwater recharge to aquifers in these catchments. The model takes into account main recharge mechanisms in the region, including subsurface flow in the valley alluvium in mountainous areas and recharge from the bed of ephemeral rivers. It deals with the effects of spatial variation in the hydrological processes by dividing the catchment into regions of broad hydrologic similarity named as highland, intermediate and aquifer areas. The model is based on the concept of routing precipitation within and through the catchment. The model has been applied to the Zahedan catchment and the results indicate that the groundwater level estimated by the recharge model generally is in agreement with the behaviour of groundwater levels in observation wells. The sensitivity analysis indicates that when the rainfall in the aquifer area is used to replace the values recorded in the intermediate area and the highland area, the recharge estimates are reduced by 42-87%. This result supports the division of the catchment into different zones of hydrological similarity to account for spatial variability of hydrological processes. Electronic Publication