Abstract
Land degradation and water availability in semi-arid regions are interdependent challenges for management that are influenced by climatic and anthropogenic changes. Erosion and high sediment loads in rivers cause reservoir siltation and decrease storage capacity, which pose risk on water security for citizens, agriculture, and industry. In regions where resources for management are limited, identifying spatial-temporal variability of sediment sources is crucial to decrease siltation. Despite widespread availability of rigorous methods, approaches simplifying spatial and temporal variability of erosion are often inappropriately applied to very data sparse semi-arid regions. In this work, we review existing approaches for mapping erosional hotspots, and provide an example of spatial-temporal mapping approach in two case study regions. The barriers limiting data availability and their effects on erosion mapping methods, their validation, and resulting prioritization of leverage management areas are discussed.
Highlights
Siltation of reservoirs is a major problem in semi-arid regions where water is scarce and land degradation frequently results in high sediment loads in rivers entering reservoirs [1,2,3,4]
Limited financial resources to apply soil-water conservation measures and institutional barriers pose further challenges for water and land managers [11]. In such situations, identifying and managing areas contributing to high sediment yields are crucial to decrease
To address some methodological aspects of hotspot mapping for dam sediment management, we provide an example for leverage areas mapping under constraints of sparse data in two semi-arid catchments described below
Summary
Siltation of reservoirs ( called sediment entrapment or infilling of reservoirs) is a major problem in semi-arid regions where water is scarce and land degradation frequently results in high sediment loads in rivers entering reservoirs [1,2,3,4]. When water is the dominant mechanism of soil loss across a catchment, soil-water conservation measures in sediment source areas can drastically decrease catchment sediment yields [6,7]. Sediment sources are unknown in many semi-arid catchments, and no data are available to adjust management . Limited financial resources to apply soil-water conservation measures and institutional barriers pose further challenges for water and land managers [11]. In such situations, identifying and managing areas contributing to high sediment yields (as sediment hotspots) are crucial to decrease
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