Trends and challenges in sediment research 2008: the role of sediments in river basin management

Abstract

This is the first editorial of an annual series. In it, we identify some of the forward-looking articles which appeared in JSS over the past two volumes and then continue to highlight recent global trends in sediment research. For the past 2 years, there has been an increase in publications which emphasize the fact that sediment is an integral and dynamic part of aquatic system and that it plays a major role in the hydrological, geomorphological, and ecological functioning of river basins. Here, disciplines such as slope geomorphology, fluvial sedimentology, coastal and marine sedimentology, and coastal management combine to assess interlinked issues of sediment production, transport, and accumulation (Perry and Taylor 2007; JSS book review by Forstner 2007). Central aspects are sediment dynamics and the interactions between sediment and pollutants in river systems (Westrich and Forstner 2007; JSS book review by Owens and Petticrew 2008). The river basin represents an appropriate scale for management because, in many cases, source control will be the optimal long-term solution: environmentally, socially, and economically (Salomons 2008). Climate changes are expected to change regional hydrology and cause changes in erosion, transport, and deposition of sediments; plausible land-use changes can be interfaced with natural science and socioeconomic models to assess the impact on sediment quality (Salomons 2005). In the EuroCat project (Salomons 2004), catchment changes and their impact on the coast were studied on seven systems covering all coastal types (except for fjords) in Europe and different socioeconomic settings. Many articles of the past two JSS volumes dealt with sediment toxicity studies and in particular with elucidating the complex mixture of potential hazardous compounds in sediments (JSS Subject Area Sediments, Section 1 ‘Sediment Quality and Impact Assessment’):