Land clearance and hydrological change in the Sahel: SW Niger

In the West African semiarid belt of the Sahel, for the second half of the XXth century, lasting droughts (1970s–1980s) and one of the World's highest population growths have resulted in major land cover and hydrological changes that can be quantified using aerial photographs. This paper aims to provide one of the longest combined observations of land cover and hydrological changes for semiarid areas using a time series of normalised mosaics of aerial photographs dating back from 1950, field inquiries, and updated groundwater data. The 500 km² study area in southwest Niger was chosen (i) for its rural environment representative of the rain-fed agriculture belt of the Sahel and (ii) to encompass the main hydrological study sites investigated in this region over the past two decades (Hapex-Sahel and AMMA experiments, 1990–2000s). Results have significant implications for future freshwater availability and food security in the Sahel.Between 1950 and 1992,  80% of the study area has been cleared, firstly to open new areas for agriculture and secondly for firewood supply (59% of the plateaux, 42% of the valley bottoms, and 87% of the hillslopes). Intermediate aerial photograph surveys (1960, 1975) attest an accelerated loss in the woody savannah that could not be recovered on the short term. A strong, indirect impact of land clearance is observed on the water resources. Land clearance has resulted in a modification of the soil properties and infiltration capacity and has led to an increase in Hortonian runoff collected in numerous gullies and ponds. Between 1950 and 1992, aerial photographs show a  2.5 fold increase of the drainage density with the development of large drainage systems and new ponds. Groundwater data also indicate a continuous rise in the water table, mostly noticeable since the 1980s with a mean groundwater level rise of  4 m for the 1963–2005 period (+ 15% in aquifer reserves). The relatively short  30 year time-lag between the onset of land clearance and the beginning of the water table rise is linked to the process of indirect groundwater recharge and is timed with the connectivity of the drainage network and the formation of new ponds. Finally, the sustained increase in surface runoff and groundwater recharge during the past four decades indicates that the indirect impact of land clearance on the terrestrial water balance has been stronger than that of the long-lasting Sahelian drought. As the rate of land clearance increased for the past century in semiarid Africa, its main hydrological effects may not yet be fully perceptible.     

四川汶川高家沟泥石流形成条件与启动机理研究

2011年7月3日,汶川县高家沟发生泥石流活动,泥石流堵塞岷江,造成重大损失。本文根据现场调查,对高家沟泥石流形成条件进行了分析,并重点分析了"堵溃"型高位泥石流的形成过程、启动机理及其运动特征,为该类泥石流的预防和治理提供了参考依据。     

滑坡碎屑堆积体形成泥石流的实验

地震或强降雨诱发滑坡,滑坡体碰撞解体形成碎屑物质堆积在沟道内,在后期降雨作用下形成泥石流,这是泥石流形成的一种方式,可称为滑坡碎屑堆积体泥石流。笔者分析了影响碎屑堆积体泥石流起动的特征参数,通过实验研究了碎屑堆积体泥石流形成的过程,分析了堆积体表面坡度、黏粒质量分数、中值粒径（d₅₀）以及不均匀系数（Cu）对泥石流形成的影响。结果表明：碎屑堆积体表面坡度对形成泥石流所需单宽流量无明显影响;黏粒质量分数在不大于5%时仅影响碎屑堆积体侵蚀,对碎屑堆积体揭底所需单宽流量无明显影响;影响碎屑堆积体形成泥石流所需单宽流量的因素主要为中值粒径和不均匀系数--随堆积体中值粒径、不均匀系数的增大而增大。通过实验数据拟合得出了中值粒径和不均匀系数与泥石流形成和揭底所需单宽流量的公式;由于公式中只考虑了影响碎屑堆积体形成泥石流的两个主要因素（d₅₀和Cu）,因此对比水文计算结果偏小,但整体趋势基本一致。在实际应用到这类泥石流沟时,可通过修正进行预测。     

Toward a stepwise Kwangsian Orogeny

The Kwangsian Orogeny originated along the southeast coast of China and stepwise developed in a northwest direction. It includes two stages, a long locally varying uplift from the Late Ordovician to the early Silurian and a finally tectonic movement near the Silurian and Devonian transition. The Kwangsian uplift event shows a stepwise delay northwestwards from the southeastern coast area in Nemagraptus gracilis Biozone (Sa1) to the south side of the Xuefeng Mountains in or later than Cystograptus vesiculosus Biozone (R3) to Coronograptus cyphus Biozone (R4). In the southern of Yangtze Platform, the Yichang Uplift was droved by the Kwangsian Orogeny forming a diachronous stratigraphical break through Rhuddanian and Aeronian. The distribution of the early Telychian lower marine red beds indicates a northwestward increase of the Cathaysian Oldland. Stratigraphical evidence may explain why the Kwangsian movement was marked by an angular disconformity during the Pridoli to earliest Devonian interval.     

Modelling suspended sediment concentration and load in a transport‐limited alluvial gully in northern Queensland,Australia

Alluvial gullies are often formed in dispersible sodic soils along steep banks of incised river channels. Field data collected by Shellberg et al. (Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 38: 1765–1778, 2013) from a gully outlet in northern Australia showed little hysteresis between water discharge and fine (<63 µm) and coarse (>63 µm) suspended sediment, indicating transport‐limited rather than source‐limited conditions. The major source of the fine (silt/clay) component was the sodic soils of upstream gully scarps, and the coarser (sand) component was sourced locally from channel bed material. In this companion paper at the same study site, a new method was developed for combining the settling velocity characteristics of these two sediment source components to estimate the average settling velocity of the total suspended sediment. This was compared to the analysis of limited sediment samples collected during flood conditions. These settling velocity data were used in the steady‐state transport limit theory of Hairsine and Rose (Water Resources Research 28: 237–243, 245–250, 1992) that successfully predicted field data of concentrations and loads at a cross‐section, regardless of the complexity of transport‐limited upstream sources (sheet erosion, scalds, rills, gullies, mass failure, bank and bed erosion, other disturbed areas). The analysis required calibration of a key model parameter, the fraction of total stream power (F ≈ 0.025) that is effective in re‐entraining sediment. Practical recommendations are provided for the prediction of sediment loads from other alluvial gullies in the region with similar hydrogeomorphic conditions, using average stream power efficiency factors for suspended silt/clay (F_w ≈ 0.016) and sand (F_s ≈ 0.038) respectively, but with no requirement for field data on sediment concentrations. Only basic field data on settling velocity characteristics from soil samples, channel geometry measurements, estimates of water velocity and discharge, and associated error margins are needed for transport limit theory predictions of concentration and load. This theory is simpler than that required in source‐limited situations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

地形和遥感图像融合技术在冲沟参数提取中的应用——以栖霞市庵里水库东缘流域为例

受图像的空间分辨率和反立体现象等因素的影响,单纯基于二维遥感图像提取冲沟参数精度较低。以山东省栖霞市庵里水库东岸流域为研究区,建立一种地形和遥感图像融合技术,并用于提取沟沿线、坡底线等冲沟参数,以期为沟蚀参数的大量、快速提取提供一种新方法。结果表明：① 基于HSV变换,高斯标准化地表粗糙度作为地形图像融合的权重,建立了地形与遥感图像融合方法,增强和丰富了图像中的地形信息。② 基于融合数据,结合沟沿线和沟底线坡度阈值处理,在研究区内提取了144条冲沟,总面积为1.699 km²,占流域总面积的29.89%,为强烈侵蚀。③ 选择张家沟—北丁家沟流域作为检验区,以RTK-GPS实测数据为参照,地形融合法提取冲沟的准确率和沟头平均偏移量分别为98.413%和4.12 m,其精度明显高于传统的遥感图像目视解译法（73.016%和9.61 m）。     

Reconstructing pre-erosion topography using spatial interpolation techniques:A validation-based approach

Understanding the topographic context preceding the development of erosive landforms is of major relevance in geomorphic research, as topography is an important factor on both water and mass movement-related erosion, and knowledge of the original surface is a condition for quantifying the volume of eroded material. Although any reconstruction implies assuming that the resulting surface reflects the original topography, past works have been dominated by linear interpolation methods, incapable of generating curved surfaces in areas with no data or values outside the range of variation of inputs. In spite of these limitations, impossibility of validation has led to the assumption of surface representativity never being challenged. In this paper, a validation-based method is applied in order to define the optimal interpolation technique for reconstructing pre-erosion topography in a given study area. In spite of the absence of the original surface, different techniques can be nonetheless evaluated by quantifying their capacity to reproduce known topography in unincised locations within the same geomorphic contexts of existing erosive landforms. A linear method (Triangulated Irregular Network, TIN) and 23 parameterizations of three distinct Spline interpolation techniques were compared using 50 test areas in a context of research on large gully dynamics in the South of Portugal. Results show that almost all Spline methods produced smaller errors than the TIN, and that the latter produced a mean absolute error 61.4% higher than the best Spline method, clearly establishing both the better adjustment of Splines to the geomorphic context considered and the limitations of linear approaches. The proposed method can easily be applied to different interpolation techniques and topographic contexts, enabling better calculations of eroded volumes and denudation rates as well as the investigation of controls by antecedent topographic form over erosive processes.     

The normalized topographic method: an automated procedure for gully mapping using GIS

Gully delineation is a critical aspect of accurately determining soil losses but associated methodologies are rarely detailed. Here, we describe a new gully mapping method, the normalized topographic method (NorToM), based on processing digital elevation model (DEM) data, and we assess associated errors when it is applied over a range of geomorphological scales. The NorToM is underpinned by two gully detection variables (normalized slope and elevation) calculated over local windows of prescribed size, and a group of filtering variables. For four study sites, DEMs of gullies were obtained using field and airborne photo‐reconstruction and evaluated using total station and differential global positioning system (dGPS) survey. NorToM provided accurate areal and volume estimates at the individual gully scale but differences increased at the larger gully system and gully network scales. We were able to identify optimal parameters for using the NorToM approach and so confirm that is represents a useful scale‐independent means of gully mapping that is likely to be valid in other environments. Its main limitations are that the normalization process might be time‐consuming at regional scales and the need for a fixed window size when applied to landforms with extreme variations in dimensions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

流域沟壑密度理论极值数学模式商讨

对张丽萍等建立的流域沟壑密度理论极值圆形数学模式进行了更正。鉴于更正的模式又与实际相矛盾,又推导出更符合实际的正六边形数学模式。     

延安黄土丘陵沟壑区地质灾害易发性浅析

在详细分析延安黄土丘陵沟壑区的地形地貌类型、斜坡的坡体结构、地质灾害类型的基础上,利用1:1000地形图为底图进行地质灾害的易发区划分分析。结果表明,对该区居民生命财产安全造成重大威胁且防范困难的地质灾害类型为不稳定斜坡(黄土滑坡、黄土崩塌、基岩崩塌)隐患,黄土陡坡和基岩陡坎区地质灾害高且易发。