Convener: Demetrio Antonio Zema

Co-conveners: Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja, Guillaume Piton, Yang Yu

Structures and policies aiming at controlling sediment transport-related or erosion-related issues are numerous and sometimes very old. Hillslope management and bioengineering, reforestation, and torrent control works using transverse structures as check dams and more recently open check dams are developed all over the world to curtail soil erosion and torrential hazards. These actions may be launch for the control of sediment supply (i) to the stream fans and valley rivers for flood protection, (ii) to dam reservoirs for water storage, and basically, (iii) for the mere mountain soil conservation and agriculture protection. The profound objectives of each action are diverse and vary depending on the geomorphic context and local state of the sediment cascade where the implementation takes place. The lack of sufficient understanding of soil erosion processes, sediment (dis)connectivity activation and torrential hazards propagation continues to make soil erosion prevention and torrent control complex topics with insufficient amount of implementation criteria and long term effect understanding. Consequently, some projects experience disappointing results due to many different circumstances, such as poor construction quality, inadequate check dam location or lack of adequate design criteria. In addition, these actions induce secondary effects, e.g., disruption of the downstream transfer of water and sediments, which should be better anticipated or possibly prevented. This EGU session aims at gathering the whole community interested in human actions on sediment fluxes and soil erosion control. Any contribution to the understanding of soil erosion control and sediment transport management based on detailed field feedback, high quality laboratory works, validated numerical modelling and effectiveness assessments are welcome. Using the knowledge gaps identified above as a starting point, the proposed EGU session pretend, for the third year, to join and share scientific and technical opinions all around the world related to the legacy effects of soil erosion control, check-dams and the potential of open check dams, highlighting the role of complex interactions between ecological elements, geomorphic processes and engineering activities.

Abstract submission here: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2019/session/31542