Creating Sediment Budgets in data poor regions

The case for combining radionuclide tracers with Remote Sensing & GIS techniques

Sarah Hobgen Research Institute for Environment and Livelihoods

Overview of presentation
Why are sediment budgets important?

What is a sediment budget?

Creating a sediment budget
Radionuclide tracers

RS/GIS methods

Summary

Why are sediment budgets important?

Domestic water supply Agricultural water supply Hydroelectricity generation

What is a sediment budget?

Rill & Sheet erosion (Topsoil) Landslides
Gully Erosion

River bank collapse / Channel change

Sediment discharged

Aims : 1. Determine relative importance of different erosion processes 2. Locate erosion sources 3. Quantify sediment volumes 4. Use simplified methods that require minimal resources

Storage in channel, sediment bars

Creating a sediment budget

What are the dominant erosion processes?
Radionuclide topsoil tracers Manual imagery analysis

Where in the catchment is the erosion occurring?

Topsoil Erosion Risk Assessment Manual imagery interpretation Sediment fingerprinting

How much sediment is reaching the weir or river mouth?

RS & GIS Field measurements Generalised equations

How are we going to use this information? Determines the level of detail required Resources available to complete the task

Radionuclide Topsoil Tracers

Caesium - 137 Lead - 210 (excess) Plutonium - 239
Beryllium -7 Beryllium 10
From nuclear weapons testing Half life of 30 years Useful for medium term erosion studies
Naturally occurring Half life of 22 years Medium term erosion studies From nuclear weapons testing Long half life of 24,110 years Medium term erosion studies Naturally occurring Short half life of 53 days Short term or single flood event studies Naturally occurring Long half life of 1.5 million years Estimating natural erosion rates

Creating a sediment budget

What are the dominant erosion processes?
Radionuclide tracers Manual imagery interpretation

Where in the catchment is the erosion occurring?

GIS Rapid Topsoil Risk Assessment RS Manual imagery interpretation Sediment chemical fingerprinting

How much sediment is reaching the weir or river mouth?

RS & GIS Field measurements

How are we going to use this information?

Determines the level of detail required Resources available to complete the task

RUSLE-based Rapid Topsoil Risk Assessment

Factor
R factor Rainfall Intensity
LS factor Slope length Slope angle C factor Land Cover

Methods
Monthly rainfall averages interpreted to estimate intensity using Fournier equation
LS module in many raster GIS applications Supervised classification of land cover classes

Data Source
World Clim Global climate model

Availability
Free to download www.worldclim.org

ASTERv2 global DSM SRTM DTM Landsat imagery, 30m resolution ASTER DEM Geology mapping Field soil classification Google Earth

Free to download

www.gdem.aster.er sdac.or.jp
Archive free to download glovis.usgs.gov Field work or existing soil mapping required Free to use online earth.google.com

K factor Determination of land units Soil erodibility from DEM Field data collection at representative locations P factor * Land conserv. practices Manual identification on high resolution imagery, field mapping

RUSLE-based Rapid Topsoil Erosion Risk Assessment

Kambaniru Catchment

Connectivity of sediment sources to the river

Mapping gullies, landslides and channel change

Data
Quickbird, SPOT imagery (High resolution)

Application
Manual interpretation of imagery to map gully, landslide and channel migration. Accuracy assessments. Manual interpretation of imagery to map gully, landslide and channel migration.

Availability
Google earth Planet Action Initiative* www.planet-action.org

Landsat

Archive free to download http://glovis.usgs.gov

Creating a sediment budget

What are the dominant erosion processes? Radionuclide tracers RS & GIS Where in the catchment is the erosion occurring? Rapid Risk Assessment Manual imagery interpretation Sediment fingerprinting How much sediment is reaching the weir or river mouth? RS & GIS Field measurements Generalised equations

How are we going to use this information? Determines the level of detail required Resources available to complete the task

Quantifying sediment production

Data
Cartosat, LiDAR, Digital globe DEM Aerial photographs (multiple image dates) Field measurements

Application
Change detection for gully erosion and channel migration. Quantifying sediment production Change detection Sediment volumes can be estimated using predictive equations Estimating sediment volumes to supplment aerial photo or imagery analysis Survey of weir and comparison with blueprints Estimate sediment yield using results from RS and published results

Availability
Purchase/order online LiDAR Cartosat websites Dependent on location , project budget and security requirements to access historical imagery Require time and field budget Access to original plans and reports can be difficult Accuracy difficult to assess, also does not capture changes due to management actions

Generalised equations

Sediment budget

Summary
Sediment budgets are an important tool for land and water managers Constant trade-off between accuracy and resources required Radionuclide and spatial methods combined are a powerful tool Freely accessible data combined with open source software provides an economical and efficient approach in data poor regions

Acknowledgements
SUPERVISION: Dr Bronwyn Myers
Research Institute for Environment and Livelihoods Charles Darwin University

RESEARCH FUNDING:

Research Award 2010

Prof Robert Wasson

Dept. of Geography National University of Singapore

Postgraduate Research Award 2011-2013

Rohan Fisher
Research Institute for Environment and Livelihoods Charles Darwin University

Dr Guy Boggs
Adjunct Research Institute for Environment and Livelihoods Charles Darwin University

Prime Ministers Australia Asia Award 2012