Abstract
Check dams are one of the most popular measures for soil erosion control. Despite the availability of various process-based modelling tools, their design is often carried out in an uncoordinated manner, potentially leading to check dam systems with limited life expectancy or unreliable sediment retention capacity. In this study, we consider the problem of determining the optimal location and size (i.e., initial storage capacity) of a given number of check dams, and tackle this problem by contributing a numerical framework that builds on geo-processing, two process-based models (WaTEM/SEDEM and StoDyM), and multi-objective evolutionary computation. The application of our framework to two catchments in the Chinese Loess Plateau, characterized by similar erosion processes but different extensions (4.26 and 13.97 km2), reveals a strong trade-off between three criteria of system's performance, namely life expectancy, sediment retention capacity, and storage dynamics. Results also show that there are opportunities for improving the performance of existing check dam systems through a coordinated, optimization-based, planning exercise.
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