TY  - JOUR
A1  - Francke, Till
A1  - Werb, Sandra
A1  - Sommerer, Erik
A1  - Lopez-Tarazon, José Andrés
T1  - Analysis of runoff, sediment dynamics and sediment yield of subcatchments in the highly erodible Isabena catchment, Central Pyrenees
JF  - Journal of soils and sediments : protection, risk assessment and remediation
N2  - The Isabena catchment (445 km(2)), Spain, features highly diverse spatial heterogeneity in land use, lithology and rainfall. Consequently, the relative contribution in terms of water and sediment yield varies immensely between its subcatchments, and also temporally. This study presents the synthesis of similar to 2.5 years of monitoring rainfall, discharge and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in the five main subcatchments of the Isabena and its outlet.
 Continuous discharge at the subcatchment outlets, nine tipping bucket rainfall and automatic SSC samplers (complemented by manual samples), were collected from June 2011 until November 2013. The water stage records were converted to discharge using a rating curve derived with Bayesian regression. For reconstructing sediment yields, the data from the intermittent SSC sampling needed to be interpolated. We employed non-parametric multivariate regression (Quantile Regression Forests, QRF) using the discharge and rainfall data plus different aggregation levels of these as ancillary predictors. The subsequent Monte Carlo simulations allowed the determination of monthly sediment yields and their uncertainty.
 The Isabena catchment shows high erosion dynamics with great variability in space and time, with stark contrasts even between adjacent subcatchments. The natural conditions make water and sediment monitoring and instrumentation very challenging; the measurement of discharge is particularly prone to considerable uncertainties. The QRF method employed for reconstructing sedigraphs and monthly yields proved well suited for the task.
KW  - Mediterranean-mountainous
KW  - Non-parametric regression
KW  - Sediment yield
KW  - Water yield
KW  - Badlands
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0990-5
SN  - 1439-0108
SN  - 1614-7480
VL  - 14
IS  - 12
SP  - 1909
EP  - 1920
PB  - Springer
CY  - Heidelberg
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Calsamiglia, Aleix
A1  - Garcia-Comendador, Julian
A1  - Fortesa, Josep
A1  - Lopez-Tarazon, José Andrés
A1  - Crema, S.
A1  - Cavalli, M.
A1  - Calvo-Cases, A.
A1  - Estrany, Joan
T1  - Effects of agricultural drainage systems on sediment connectivity in a small Mediterranean lowland catchment
JF  - Geomorphology : an international journal on pure and applied geomorphology
N2  - Traditional drainage systems combining man-made channels and subsurface tile drains have been used since Roman times to control water excess in Mediterranean lowland regions, favouring adequate soil water regime for agriculture purposes. However, mechanization of agriculture, abandonment or land use changes lead to a progressive deterioration of these drains in the last decades. The effects of these structures on hydrological and sediment dynamics have been previously analyzed in a small Mediterranean lowland catchment (Can Revull, Mallorca, Spain, 1.4 km2) by establishing an integrated sediment budget with a multi-technique approach. Moreover, the recent advances in morphometric techniques enable the completion of this analysis by the accurate identification of active areas (i.e. sources, pathway links, and sinks) and improve the understanding of (de-)coupling mechanisms of water and sediment linkages. In this study, the Borselli's index of connectivity (IC; Cavalli et al. (2013)'s version) derived from a LiDAR-based high resolution DEM (>1 pt m−2; RMSE < 0.2 m) was used to evaluate the spatial patterns of sediment connectivity of the catchment under two different scenarios: (1) the current scenario, including an accurate representation of the 3800 m of artificial channels and levees (CS - Channelled Scenario), and (2) a hypothetical scenario in which these anthropogenic features were removed (US - Unchannelled Scenario). Design and configuration of the drainage system in Can Revull generated changes favouring lateral decoupling between different compartments, with hillslopes-floodplain and floodplain-channels relationships, showing a general decrease of IC values, and high longitudinal connectivity along the artificial channel network. Field observations corroborated these results: structures enabled rapid drainage of the water excess also promoting low surface runoff within the field crops, proving to be an effective management practice for erosion control in agricultural Mediterranean lowland catchments. By contrast, US demonstrated that the abandonment of the current agricultural practices and the subsequent destruction of the drainage system could lead the higher soil loss rates owning to more intense/effective processes of sediment connectivity.
KW  - Sediment connectivity
KW  - Traditional drainage systems
KW  - Catchment management
KW  - Soil erosion
KW  - LiDAR
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.06.011
SN  - 0169-555X
SN  - 1872-695X
VL  - 318
SP  - 162
EP  - 171
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Park, Jungsu
A1  - Batalla, Ramon J.
A1  - Birgand, Francois
A1  - Esteves, Michel
A1  - Gentile, Francesco
A1  - Harrington, Joseph R.
A1  - Navratil, Oldrich
A1  - Lopez-Tarazon, José Andrés
A1  - Vericat, Damia
T1  - Influences of Catchment and River Channel Characteristics on the Magnitude and Dynamics of Storage and Re-Suspension of Fine Sediments in River Beds
JF  - Water
N2  - Fine particles or sediments are one of the important variables that should be considered for the proper management of water quality and aquatic ecosystems. In the present study, the effect of catchment characteristics on the performance of an already developed model for the estimation of fine sediments dynamics between the water column and sediment bed was tested, using 13 catchments distributed worldwide. The model was calibrated to determine two optimal model parameters. The first is the filtration parameter, which represents the filtration of fine sediments through pores of the stream bed during the recession period of a flood event. The second parameter is the bed erosion parameter that represents the active layer, directly related to the re-suspension of fine sediments during a flood event. A dependency of the filtration parameter with the catchment area was observed in catchments smaller than 100 km(2), whereas no particular relationship was observed for larger catchments (>100 km(2)). In contrast, the bed erosion parameter does not show a noticeable dependency with the area or other environmental characteristics. The model estimated the mass of fine sediments released from the sediment bed to the water column during flood events in the 13 catchments within 23% bias.
KW  - bed erosion
KW  - catchment area
KW  - filtration
KW  - sediment accumulation
KW  - sediment bed fluidization
KW  - sediment re-suspension
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3390/w11050878
SN  - 2073-4441
VL  - 11
IS  - 5
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bronstert, Axel
A1  - de Araujo, Josè Carlos
A1  - Batalla  Villanueva, Ramon J.
A1  - Costa, Alexandre Cunha
A1  - Delgado, José Miguel Martins
A1  - Francke, Till
A1  - Förster, Saskia
A1  - Guentner, Andreas
A1  - Lopez-Tarazon, José Andrés
A1  - Mamede, George Leite
A1  - Medeiros, Pedro Henrique Augusto
A1  - Mueller, Eva
A1  - Vericat, Damia
T1  - Process-based modelling of erosion, sediment transport and reservoir siltation in mesoscale semi-arid catchments
JF  - Journal of soils and sediments : protection, risk assessment and remediation
N2  - To support scientifically sound water management in dryland environments a modelling system has been developed for the quantitative assessment of water and sediment fluxes in catchments, transport in the river system, and retention in reservoirs. The spatial scale of interest is the mesoscale because this is the scale most relevant for management of water and land resources.
 This modelling system comprises process-oriented hydrological components tailored for dryland characteristics coupled with components comprising hillslope erosion, sediment transport and reservoir deposition processes. The spatial discretization is hierarchically designed according to a multi-scale concept to account for particular relevant process scales. The non-linear and partly intermittent run-off generation and sediment dynamics are dealt with by accounting for connectivity phenomena at the intersections of landscape compartments. The modelling system has been developed by means of data from nested research catchments in NE-Spain and in NE-Brazil.
 In the semi-arid NE of Brazil sediment retention along the topography is the main process for sediment retention at all scales, i.e. the sediment delivery is transport limited. This kind of deposition retains roughly 50 to 60 % of eroded sediment, maintaining a similar deposition proportion in all spatial scales investigated. On the other hand, the sediment retained in reservoirs is clearly related to the scale, increasing with catchment area. With increasing area, there are more reservoirs, increasing the possibility of deposition. Furthermore, the area increase also promotes an increase in flow volume, favouring the construction of larger reservoirs, which generally overflow less frequently and retain higher sediment fractions. The second example comprises a highly dynamic Mediterranean catchment in NE-Spain with nested sub-catchments and reveals the full dynamics of hydrological, erosion and deposition features. The run-off modelling performed well with only some overestimation during low-flow periods due to the neglect of water losses along the river. The simulated peaks in sediment flux are reproduced well, while low-flow sediment transport is less well captured, due to the disregard of sediment remobilization in the riverbed during low flow.
 This combined observation and modelling study deepened the understanding of hydro-sedimentological systems characterized by flashy run-off generation and by erosion and sediment transport pulses through the different landscape compartments. The connectivity between the different landscape compartments plays a very relevant role, regarding both the total mass of water and sediment transport and the transport time through the catchment.
KW  - Connectivity
KW  - Deposition
KW  - Erosion
KW  - Modelling
KW  - Sediment transfer
KW  - Semi-arid
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0994-1
SN  - 1439-0108
SN  - 1614-7480
VL  - 14
IS  - 12
SP  - 2001
EP  - 2018
PB  - Springer
CY  - Heidelberg
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pena-Angulo, D.
A1  - Nadal-Romero, E.
A1  - Gonzalez-Hidalgo, J. C.
A1  - Albaladejo, J.
A1  - Andreu, V
A1  - Bagarello, V
A1  - Barhi, H.
A1  - Batalla, R. J.
A1  - Bernal, S.
A1  - Bienes, R.
A1  - Campo, J.
A1  - Campo-Bescos, M. A.
A1  - Canatario-Duarte, A.
A1  - Canton, Y.
A1  - Casali, J.
A1  - Castillo, V
A1  - Cerda, Artemi
A1  - Cheggour, A.
A1  - Cid, Patricio
A1  - Cortesi, N.
A1  - Desir, G.
A1  - Diaz-Pereira, E.
A1  - Espigares, T.
A1  - Estrany, Joan
A1  - Fernandez-Raga, M.
A1  - Ferreira, Carla S. S.
A1  - Ferro, Vito
A1  - Gallart, Francesc
A1  - Gimenez, R.
A1  - Gimeno, E.
A1  - Gomez, J. A.
A1  - Gomez-Gutierrez, A.
A1  - Gomez-Macpherson, H.
A1  - Gonzalez-Pelayo, O.
A1  - Hueso-Gonzalez, P.
A1  - Kairis, O.
A1  - Karatzas, G. P.
A1  - Klotz, S.
A1  - Kosmas, C.
A1  - Lana-Renault, Noemi
A1  - Lasanta, T.
A1  - Latron, J.
A1  - Lazaro, R.
A1  - Le Bissonnais, Y.
A1  - Le Bouteiller, C.
A1  - Licciardello, F.
A1  - Lopez-Tarazon, José Andrés
A1  - Lucia, A.
A1  - Marin, C.
A1  - Marques, M. J.
A1  - Martinez-Fernandez, J.
A1  - Martinez-Mena, M.
A1  - Martinez-Murillo, J. F.
A1  - Mateos, L.
A1  - Mathys, N.
A1  - Merino-Martin, L.
A1  - Moreno-de las Heras, M.
A1  - Moustakas, N.
A1  - Nicolau, J. M.
A1  - Novara, A.
A1  - Pampalone, V
A1  - Raclot, D.
A1  - Rodriguez-Blanco, M. L.
A1  - Rodrigo-Comino, Jesús
A1  - Romero-Diaz, A.
A1  - Roose, E.
A1  - Rubio, J. L.
A1  - Ruiz-Sinoga, J. D.
A1  - Schnabel, S.
A1  - Senciales-Gonzalez, J. M.
A1  - Simonneaux, V
A1  - Sole-Benet, A.
A1  - Taguas, E.
A1  - Taboada-Castro, M. M.
A1  - Taboada-Castro, M. T.
A1  - Todisco, Francesca
A1  - Ubeda, X.
A1  - Varouchakis, E. A.
A1  - Vericat, Damia
A1  - Wittenberg, L.
A1  - Zabaleta, A.
A1  - Zorn, M.
T1  - Spatial variability of the relationships of runoff and sediment yield with weather types throughout the Mediterranean basin
JF  - Journal of hydrology
N2  - Soil degradation by water is a serious environmental problem worldwide, with specific climatic factors being the major causes. We investigated the relationships between synoptic atmospheric patterns (i.e. weather types, WTs) and runoff, erosion and sediment yield throughout the Mediterranean basin by analyzing a large database of natural rainfall events at 68 research sites in 9 countries. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify spatial relationships of the different WTs including three hydro-sedimentary variables: rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield (SY, used to refer to both soil erosion measured at plot scale and sediment yield registered at catchment scale). The results indicated 4 spatial classes of rainfall and runoff: (a) northern sites dependent on North (N) and North West (NW) flows; (b) eastern sites dependent on E and NE flows; (c) southern sites dependent on S and SE flows; and, finally, (d) western sites dependent on W and SW flows. Conversely, three spatial classes are identified for SY characterized by: (a) N and NE flows in northern sites (b) E flows in eastern sites, and (c) W and SW flows in western sites. Most of the rainfall, runoff and SY occurred during a small number of daily events, and just a few WTs accounted for large percentages of the total. Our results confirm that characterization by WT improves understanding of the general conditions under which runoff and SY occur, and provides useful information for understanding the spatial variability of runoff, and SY throughout the Mediterranean basin. The approach used here could be useful to aid of the design of regional water management and soil conservation measures.
KW  - Synoptic weather types
KW  - Erosion
KW  - Sediment yield
KW  - Runoff
KW  - Mediterranean basin
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.01.059
SN  - 0022-1694
SN  - 1879-2707
VL  - 571
SP  - 390
EP  - 405
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Brosinsky, Arlena
A1  - Förster, Saskia
A1  - Segl, Karl
A1  - Lopez-Tarazon, José Andrés
A1  - Pique, Gemma
A1  - Bronstert, Axel
T1  - Spectral fingerprinting: characterizing suspended sediment sources by the use of VNIR-SWIR spectral information
JF  - Journal of soils and sediments : protection, risk assessment and remediation
N2  - Knowledge of sediment sources is a prerequisite for sustainable management practices and may furthermore improve our understanding of water and sediment fluxes. Investigations have shown that a number of characteristic soil properties can be used as "fingerprints" to trace back the sources of river sediments. Spectral properties have recently been successfully used as such characteristics in fingerprinting studies. Despite being less labour-intensive than geochemical analyses, for example, spectroscopy allows measurements of small amounts of sediment material (> 60 mg), thus enabling inexpensive analyses even of intra-event variability. The focus of this study is on the examination of spectral properties of fluvial sediment samples to detect changes in source contributions, both between and within individual flood events.
 Sediment samples from the following three different origins were collected in the Isabena catchment (445 km(2)) in the central Spanish Pyrenees: (1) soil samples from the main potential source areas, (2) stored fine sediment from the channel bed once each season in 2011 and (3) suspended sediment samples during four flood events in autumn 2011 and spring 2012 at the catchment outlet as well as at several subcatchment outlets. All samples were dried and measured for spectral properties in the laboratory using an ASD spectroradiometer. Colour parameters and physically based features (e.g. organic carbon, iron oxide and clay content) were calculated from the spectra. Principal component analyses (PCA) were applied to all three types of samples to determine natural clustering of samples, and a mixing model was applied to determine source contributions.
 We found that fine sediment stored in the river bed seems to be mainly influenced by grain size and seasonal variability, while sampling location-and thus the effect of individual tributaries or subcatchments-seem to be of minor importance. Suspended sediment sources were found to vary between, as well as within, flood events; although badlands were always the major source. Forests and grasslands contributed little (< 10 %), and other sources (not further determinable) contributed up to 40 %. The analyses further suggested that sediment sources differ among the subcatchments and that subcatchments comprising relatively large proportions of badlands contributed most to the four flood events analyzed.
 Spectral fingerprints provide a rapid and cost-efficient alternative to conventional fingerprint properties. However, a combination of spectral and conventional fingerprint properties could potentially permit discrimination of a larger number of source types.
KW  - Isabena river
KW  - Mixing models
KW  - Northeast Spain
KW  - Sediment fingerprinting
KW  - Spectroscopy
KW  - Suspended sediment
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0927-z
SN  - 1439-0108
SN  - 1614-7480
VL  - 14
IS  - 12
SP  - 1965
EP  - 1981
PB  - Springer
CY  - Heidelberg
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Lopez-Tarazon, José Andrés
A1  - Byrne, Patrick
A1  - van der Perk, Marcel
T1  - Transfer of Sediments and Contaminants in Catchments and Rivers Preface
T2  - Journal of soils and sediments : protection, risk assessment and remediation
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-017-1810-5
SN  - 1439-0108
SN  - 1614-7480
VL  - 17
SP  - 2577
EP  - 2581
PB  - Springer
CY  - Heidelberg
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Francke, Till
A1  - Baroni, Gabriele
A1  - Brosinsky, Arlena
A1  - Foerster, Saskia
A1  - Lopez-Tarazon, José Andrés
A1  - Sommerer, Erik
A1  - Bronstert, Axel
T1  - What Did Really Improve Our Mesoscale Hydrological Model?
BT  - a Multidimensional Analysis Based on Real Observations
JF  - Water resources research
N2  - Modelers can improve a model by addressing the causes for the model errors (data errors and structural errors). This leads to implementing model enhancements (MEs), for example, meteorological data based on more monitoring stations, improved calibration data, and/or modifications in process formulations. However, deciding on which MEs to implement remains a matter of expert knowledge. After implementing multiple MEs, any improvement in model performance is not easily attributed, especially when considering different objectives or aspects of this improvement (e.g., better dynamics vs. reduced bias). We present an approach for comparing the effect of multiple MEs based on real observations and considering multiple objectives (MMEMO). A stepwise selection approach and structured plots help to address the multidimensionality of the problem. Tailored analyses allow a differentiated view on the effect of MEs and their interactions. MMEMO is applied to a case study employing the mesoscale hydro-sedimentological model WASA-SED for the Mediterranean-mountainous Isabena catchment, northeast Spain. The investigated seven MEs show diverse effects: some MEs (e.g., rainfall data) cause improvements for most objectives, while other MEs (e.g., land use data) only affect a few objectives or even decrease model performance. Interaction of MEs was observed for roughly half of the MEs, confirming the need to address them in the analysis. Calibration and increasing the temporal resolution showed by far stronger impact than any of the other MEs. The proposed framework can be adopted in other studies to analyze the effect of MEs and, thus, facilitate the identification and implementation of the most promising MEs for comparable cases.
KW  - modeling
KW  - sensitivity analyses
KW  - model enhancement
KW  - sediment
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022813
SN  - 0043-1397
SN  - 1944-7973
VL  - 54
IS  - 11
SP  - 8594
EP  - 8612
PB  - American Geophysical Union
CY  - Washington
ER  -