Water Stewardship Information Sources
| Citation | Araujo, HA, Page, A, Cooper, AB, Venditti, J, MacIsaac, E, Hassan, M and Knowler, D. 2014. Modelling changes in suspended sediment from forest road surfaces in a coastal watershed of British Columbia. Hydrological Processes 28:4914-4927. |
|---|---|
| Organization | SFU |
| URL | http://www.sfu.ca/~jvenditt/publications/2013_hpy9989_Araujo_etal_Roads.pdf |
| Abstract/Description or Keywords | Keywords: sediment yield;forest road traffic levels;number of sediment events;road sediment generation model Abstract Erosion from logging road surfaces, cut slopes, banks, and ditches represents a chronic source of sediment input to streams that can degrade aquatic habitats. Road surface erosion is of particular concern because the magnitude of sediment generation when traffic levels are high can be large. Current models for predicting sediment production from roads require information on area-specific sediment delivery, which is not often available. Here, we developed a model to quantify suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) generated by forest roads surfaces under different conditions of use and density. This model is designed for a typical medium-size coastal watershed of British Columbia or the American Pacific Northwest, and was applied to the Chilliwack River watershed as a case study. The results illustrate that intensive use of forest roads combined with high road density can increase the number of extreme sedimentation events over a predetermined threshold. A comparison of the effects of road density and the level of road use suggests that the level of road use is more important than the road density for the generation of fine sediment from road surfaces. However, the model omits the impact of roads on mass movements in a watershed, which represent a major source of sediment in steep watersheds, so the effect of road density is likely more substantial than the model predicts. The model is an attempt to overcome field data limitations by using an empirical relation between SSC and traffic variables, and presents a starting point for more intensive field studies that could be used to validate it. |
| Information Type | article |
| Regional Watershed | Lower Fraser |
| Sub-watershed if known | Chilliwack River |
| Aquifer # | |
| Comments | |
| Project status | |
| Contact Name | Jeremy Venditti |
| Contact Email | [email protected] |