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Using 137 Cs and 210 Pb ex measurements to investigate the sediment budget of a small forested catchment in southern Italy
Author(s) -
Porto Paolo,
Walling Desmond E.,
Callegari Giovanni
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
hydrological processes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.222
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1099-1085
pISSN - 0885-6087
DOI - 10.1002/hyp.9471
Subject(s) - sedimentary budget , sediment , drainage basin , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental science , sediment transport , geology , geography , geomorphology , cartography , geotechnical engineering
Concern for the sustainability of the soil resource and for the detrimental impacts of fine sediment on downstream river systems and aquatic ecosystems has directed attention to the need for information on the suspended sediment loads of rivers. However, traditional measurement programmes focus primarily on quantifying the sediment load at a catchment outlet. Such information, although useful, may be of limited value in establishing rates of soil degradation, because much of the sediment mobilized within a catchment may be deposited before reaching the catchment outlet. Furthermore, it may also be of limited value in the design and implementation of sediment management and control programmes, because this requires an understanding of the key sources of mobilized sediment, the transport pathways involved and the importance of storage within the catchment. Information on the sediment budget of a catchment must be seen as an increasingly important requirement. However, such information is difficult to obtain using conventional traditional monitoring techniques. Fallout radionuclides, including caesium‐137 ( 137 Cs) and unsupported or excess lead‐210 ( 210 Pb ex ), have been shown to offer considerable potential for use as sediment tracers in sediment budget investigations. They are able to provide distributed information on rates of soil and sediment redistribution within the catchment, which represents a valuable complement to information on sediment output. This contribution reports the results of a study aimed at exploring the use of both 137 Cs and 210 Pb ex measurements to establish the sediment budget for the small (1.39 km 2 ) forested Bonis catchment, located in southern Italy. The results confirm that 137 Cs and 210 Pb ex measurements can provide a valuable tool for quantifying both erosion and sediment redistribution within a catchment and therefore for establishing its sediment budget. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.