Spain: Erosion Control and Olive Orchards - A Field Tour

Story by Julie Etra, MS, CPESC
Principal, Western Botanical Services, Inc., Reno, Nevada USA
IECA Region 1 Vice-President for International Development

The Sixth Biennial IberoAmerican Chapter Conference (CICES VI) took place this year on October 1 - 4 in Granada, Spain. On the day of the 4th, a fortunate group of attendees enjoyed a field trip highlighting the olive industry led by IberoAmerican Chapter President and conference organizer Valentin Contreras of BonTerra Iberica (BPS Group), a design, manufacturing, and construction firm located in Granada.

Olive cultivation dominates agriculture and drives the economy of Andalucía, a province in southern Spain where the conference was held.  The groves seem to go on forever in this part of the country, as a visit to Google Earth will verify.

Typical Andalucía landscape of olive orchards. photo by Julie Etra

Our group of professionals from Chile, Spain, Argentina, Peru, Guatemala and the United States gathered outside the conference center and loaded onto a small bus for a very insightful, diverse and fun tour of the olive industry.

Olives and Erosion

The day started with a visit to an olive orchard in the vicinity of Campotéjar, north of Granada, where the estimated soil loss is 50-100 metric tons/hectare (roughly 22 - 44 tons per acre) per year. To the un-educated eye (and perhaps partly true) olive orchards appear to be monocultures with little vegetation other than some annual grasses and cover crops. This perception was particularly apparent in early October, prior to the winter rainy season which characterizes this Mediterranean climate. It appears that the orchards are managed for the ease and efficiency of harvesting the olives, an obvious priority.

Tour leader Valentin Contreras talks about biodiversity in olive groves. 
photo by Will Mahoney

 

We looked at two sites with a variety of installations that mainly addressed rill and gully erosion. BonTerra designed and installed several types of erosion control BMPs (best management practices), primarily using different types of blankets and fiber rolls.  In some locations, these installations were also used in combination with gravel-filled tubular nets in key trenches.

Erosion control blankets consist of fiber rolls fabricated with coir (coconut) fiber or Stipa (Nasella) tenacissima (Esparto or Atocha), and polypropylene netting. According to Valentin, the plastic netting is desirable, since it takes longer to break down than the biodegradable nettings, but only lasts 3 - 4 years. Esparto is a drought-tolerant bunch grass of great importance and abundance in this region and is related to other species of Nasella common in the western United States.

Orchard managers use a backhoe bucket to create a large divot (hole) with the excavated soil pushed up next to a tree. This clever technique increases infiltration and reduces runoff. 

photo by Julie Etra

BonTerra also has been working with a non-profit group, EUTROMED, and government agencies, to reduce ground and surface water contamination generated by fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. In combination with erosion control blankets and fiber rolls, they have added containerized plants such santolina, rosemary, and thyme, which they plant on the up-drainage side of the fiber rolls to increase infiltration and nutrient uptake. EUTROMED also is monitoring water quality below the study sites.

In the vicinity, we also saw other types of erosion and sediment control that included rip rap, rock fall netting and gabions.

 

A combination of fiber rolls and gravel check dams with erosion control blankets address rill and gully erosion.   photo by Will Mahoney

 

Combining Work and Play

Following the first site visit, Valentin accompanied us to a modern and immaculate olive processing facility where we learned that the Spaniards waste nothing -- even the pits or seeds are processed and used as pellets for heating. Olive oil sampling along with the requisite Serrano ham, cheese, tomato sauce, beer, wine and juice at a lovely local restaurant followed this tour.

We also had the opportunity to visit the efficient BonTerra factory where coir blankets are manufactured.



Field tour participants from Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Peru, Spain, and the USA visiting the BonTerra factory. Julie Etra, the guest author of this blog post, is at the right of the front row wearing a cap.

Additional unrelated and unanticipated stops included yet another olive oil tasting, a five-course meal, and a private tour of the Cueva de las Ventanas (Cave of the Windows) (http://waste.ideal.es/cuevaventanas.htm), This Neolithic cave is located in the municipality of Píñar and was first occupied by humans about 20,000 years ago. Above the cave remains the last Arab outpost and fortress prior to the fall of Spain to the Roman Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella.

Oh, yum! Sampling wine and olive oil in Píñar.  photo by Will Mahoney

 

Lastly, we visited the very “green” offices of the BPS Group in the industrial section of Granada, where Valentin showed us their green walls of ferns and mosses, the green roof consisting mostly of succulents, samples of rammed earth used in new construction projects, and other examples of energy-efficient construction.

Green wall and green roof at the BPS Group office in Granada.  photos by Will Mahoney

 

The field trip was a fantastic learning experience and created some great memories.  Many thanks to the IberoAmerican Chapter of IECA and to Valentin Contreras!

 

A similar version of this article previously appeared in IECA’s journal, Environmental Connection (Volume 7, Issue 1, January 2013).

Coming next:  A visit to a very big rock - Gibraltar, that is!

Spain: Presentations at CICES highlight erosion control work in a variety of Iberoamerican countries

In my previous post, I summarized some of the introductory presentations at CICES, the IECA Iberoamerican Chapter’s October 2012 conference in Granada, Spain.  In this post, I’ll focus on a few of the subsequent presentations that dealt with erosion and sedimentation issues in Spain and Latin America.  These were not necessarily the “best” presentations (although they were good to excellent) but I wanted to include examples from several different countries in order to give you readers a better idea of the wide geographical range of professionals working on erosion and sedimentation issues in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries.  At least 17 countries were represented at the conference.

Olive groves are found in great abundance in the Andalucía region of southern Spain.  We had several presentations about erosion problems associated with olive cultivation.   One was titled “Initiative against erosion through integrated restoration in watersheds dominated by steeply-sloping olive groves in Andalucía” (my English translation).  The authors included some spectacular photos of catastrophic erosion in olive groves.  The principal author, Federico Julián Fuentes, noted that this problem has accelerated since the mechanization of Spanish agriculture took off in the 1960s.  He pointed out that social, economic, legal, administrative, and technical factors are obstacles in the restoration of affected watersheds.  He spoke of the need for a pilot project which would include not only technical studies but also incorporate an action plan supported by the participation, collaboration, and consensus of public administrators, affected farmers, environmentalists, and civic organizations.

Left: Small rivulets start to develop between lines of olive trees planted on a slope. Right: The rivulets naturally evolve into large gullies with time. 

photos from presentation by Federico Julián Fuentes

 

There were a number of presentations from Argentina.  “Riparian infrastructure for urban restoration in the city of Tartagal, Province of Salta, Argentina” (presented by Gustavo Arce) focused on traditional structural measures to control slope failures adjacent to a deeply incised river channel in a densely populated urban area.  Throughout its history, the Tartagal River has suffered from floods which undercut steep hillsides causing homes to collapse.  To address this problem, engineers from INMAC, a Buenos Aires-based consulting firm specializing in erosion and sediment control, used geotechnical approaches such as retaining walls (gabions and reinforced concrete) to channelize the river.  My first impression was that their approach was perhaps a bit heavy on large-scale structural controls.  However, in a crowded urban setting, I wonder if this is perhaps a more practical option than an environmentally-friendly and aesthetically-pleasing design relying on bioengineering.   

Photos at the beginning of construction (top left) and following completion (bottom right) show how the steep unstable slope on the top left was moderated and terraced above the new retaining walls. 

photos from presentation by Gustavo Arce

Gino Mathews from Peru gave a presentation on erosion control training for rural communities in the Peruvian highlands. The training aims to take the skills of indigenous people who have a long history of working with earth and rock to construct agricultural terraces and apply these skills to the mining industry.  People from local communities can then become employed in erosion and sediment control for the mining companies from the exploration phase all the way through mine post-closure.  In the process, cooperation between the mining companies and local communities is fostered, indigenous people get good-paying jobs without migrating to cities, and the mining companies can legitimately claim that they are helping local communities and using the skills of local people to protect the environment.  Seems to me like the type of project IECA’s SOIL Fund should get involved with.  IECA can provide skilled erosion control professionals like Gino Mathews to provide the training and the mining companies can provide funding.   

 

Photo from presentation by Gino Mathews illustrating the terrific skill of indigenous Andean people in construction of agricultural terraces on precipitous slopes.

Paula Pereira talked about the use of bioengineering for stream bank restoration.  She co-authored a paper (“Protection and Recuperation of Stream Course Margins Using Bioengineering”) describing methodologies used and monitored in the states of Bahia and Minas Gerais, Brazil.  Sediment retainers, wooden fences, and berms packed with live cuttings resulted in satisfactory stream bank protection.  These low cost BMPs were easy to install and environmentally compatible.  Senhorita (that’s Portuguese for señorita) Pereira is employed by DEFLOR Bioengenharia based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.  Another DEFLOR employee, Luiz Lucena, spoke on erosion mitigation using bioengineering along the Atlantic coast of Brazil.  

Examples from Paula Pereira’s presentation showing stream bank stabilization using live cuttings planted along layers of soil which have been covered with natural fabric blankets.

Ricardo Schmalbach spoke about various erosion control techniques used on the Rio Magdalena, the principal river in Colombia which drains northerly to the Caribbean.  Record floods along the Magdalena during the winter of 2010-2011destroyed large areas of agricultural and industrial facilities, ports, and roads.  More than 500,000 people were displaced and 100,000 are still homeless.  Dr. Schmalbach described the use of “megabolsas” (huge sandbags weighing several tons each) to repair a critical broken jetty along the Magdalena.  Geotextile bags with a capacity of 13.5 cubic meters are filled with sand, dropped into the water from dump trucks, and positioned with excavators (track hoes) to build dikes.

 

Construction of a flood control dike along the Rio Magdalena in Colombia using “megabolsas.” The huge bags are compacted and consolidated by both their own weight and by the passage of trucks across them as more megabolsas are added.

photo from presentation by Ricardo Schmalbach

We tend to think of El Salvador as a poor, backward Central American nation.  Thus, it was encouraging to learn that state-of-the-art erosion control techniques employing heavy equipment were used in construction of a new 290km highway in the northern part of the country (“Slope Protection on the Northern Highway, El Salvador” by Oscar Alfredo Rivas Cerna).  To protect cut and fill slopes from failure in the tropical climate, geomat incorporating a double-twist hexagonal mesh attached to a filament-reinforced polypropylene was installed.  It was secured with rod anchors placed in a mortar slurry on a 2-meter-spaced grid across the slope.  30,000 square meters of this mesh were used on slopes which had a high probability of failure.  On another 12,000 square meters of slopes with relatively lower stability hazards, natural fibrous geomat (such as coir) was used to promote natural revegetation.

 

Using a hydraulic elevator for emplacement of hexagonal mesh and erosion control blankets and for drilling holes for rod anchors, Northern Highway, El Salvador. 

photos from presentation by Oscar Alfredo Rivas Cerna.

You may have seen my earlier postings from Bali and Thailand discussing the use of vetiver grass for erosion control.  Oscar Rodríguez Parisca of the Central University of Venezuela pointed out that climate change will bring ecological, economic and social impacts to vulnerable populations in developing countries (“Adaptation to climate change through the use of vetiver systems:  A tool for soil conservation and community development”).  He pointed out that use of vetiver is a simple, low cost option for soil stabilization that is tolerant of environmental extremes and is, therefore, suitable for communities adapting to climate change.  Examples were presented showing applications of vetiver systems to various types of impacts.

 

Examples of use of vetiver for erosion control in Venezuela: coffee plantation (upper right) & bauxite mine reclamation (lower left). 

photos from presentation by OscarRodríguez Parisca.

Julie Etra (IECA’s VP for International Development) and I were the only “gringos” who spoke at the conference.  Julie talked about the challenges of identifying appropriate best management practices for erosion control and revegetation in arid areas.   For example, revegetation of disturbed sites will often fail unless it is combined with rainwater harvesting to provide adequate moisture for germination and initial growth of native vegetation. 

When wattles are installed in low rainfall environments, they are of little use if vegetation plantings have insufficient moisture for survival. 

photo by Pablo A. Garcia-Chevesich from presentation by Julie Etra.

 

Julie had an easier time presenting in Spanish than I did as she had the good fortune of attending a private high school in Spain and now lives part of the year in southern Mexico.  Luckily for me, Julie and Gustavo Salerno (IECA Region I board member from Argentina) translated the English presentation of my erosion survey in Ecuador (including PowerPoint slide captions) into excellent Spanish.  All I had to do was practice it a few times before the conference, and Julie was there for my presentation to help me with questions from the audience.

 

Muchas gracias to Gustavo Salerno and Julie Etra for their translation of my presentation into Spanish!     

Spain: IECA Iberoamerican Conference held in Europe for the first time

On the morning of October 2, I took a brisk walk from my hotel in Granada, Spain to the Palace of Conferences and Expositions for the start of CICES 2012, the 6^th biannual conference of IECA’s Iberoamerican Chapter.  This was my first visit to Spain and the first conference I would attend that was totally in Spanish.  A dozen years ago, the Spanish part would have been less of a problem as I was coming off of five years of Spanish study and an intensive one-month immersion course in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.  However, in the intervening years, I had barely used my Spanish and was really rusty.  At least the subject of the conference was a subject with which I was quite familiar (erosion and sediment control) so I would hopefully be able to figure out what was going on just by looking at the pictures.  And, for the most part, my assumption was correct and some of the Spanish that was buried in the back of my brain was roused from its long sleep.

Conference participants hanging out in the lobby of “El Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones”.

 

Vendor displays at the conference

After introductions, the first presentation was by Gustavo Salerno, an Argentine engineer and member of the Board of Directors of IECA’s Region 1.  He gave an excellent presentation, Hacia una solucion integral en el control de la erosion y los sedimentos (Toward a comprehensive solution in controlling erosion and sediments) which provided an overview of the global importance of contemporary erosion and sedimentation and identifying the gravity of the problem. 

Left: Valentin Contreras (Spain), Chair of the conference organizing committee; Right: Gustavo Salerno (Argentina), one of the keynote speakers.

Señor Salerno noted that the significance of erosion depends largely on climate and is particularly serious in places like India and South America because of heavy rainfall, a preponderance of steep slopes, and intensive land use.  Of course, we at IECA are focused on erosion associated with highly visible, large construction projects such as highways, pipelines, and power lines.  However, agriculture is responsible for 60% of erosion worldwide whereas urban development accounts for 20% and mining 10%.  Salerno pointed out that erosion from agriculture could be greatly reduced by contour plowing which, as I had seen in many of the countries I had just visited, is still not used as widely as it could be.

Gustavo Salerno then focused on pipeline projects and presented examples of stream crossing design to reduce erosion.  He spoke of the gasoducto verde (“green” gas pipeline) concept which is increasingly being adopted on South American construction projects.  He described elements of the gasoducto verde including narrowing the pipeline right-of-way to the narrowest width possible in rainforests.  The importance of project planning was also stressed.

The next presentation was by a Spaniard, Rosa Arce Ruiz, Professor of Civil Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid.  It was titled “Soil in the development of transportation, industrial, urban, and residential infrastructure”.  Professor Arce started off with a summary of the history of international regulations and proclamations for the protection of soils.  She stressed that “el suelo es un elemento vivo” (soil is a living entity), and documented the stresses on Spanish soils because of deforestation and urbanization.  Deforestation is occurring to provide more land for cultivation, grazing, and wood exploitation.  I was interested to learn that Spain is the most arid country in Europe (so salinization of soils is a large issue), and the Spanish environmental impact assessment law mandates the protection of soils.

Paolo Cornelini spoke about the use of natural engineering to revitalize riparian environments.

 

We had a presentation from an Italian professor, Paolo Cornelini, who is vice-president of the Italian Association for Natural Engineering.  His presentation was titled “The restoration and conservation of soil in the vicinity of river networks.”  Professor Cornelini reminded us that el rio es una ecosystema (the river is an ecosystem).  He described how the functioning of this ecosystem can be disrupted by disturbances to a river’s morphology, hydrologic regime, and vegetation.  Erosion (such as bank erosion and bed scouring) is a fundamental element interfering with the natural morphology of a river.

In order to “re-naturalize” a river’s disrupted ecosystem it is necessary to restore both its morphology and biodiversity.  Professor Cornelini showed us examples of river “re-naturalization” projects in Italy and South America.   Professor Cornelini showed us examples of river “re-naturalization” projects in Italy and South America.  The emphasis was on use of more vegetation and less technology such as “living” wattles and gabions containing seedlings and placed strategically in riparian areas.  Along the river channel, they recreated the natural step-pool sequence.   He presented an example from northeastern Italy in the Alps near the border with Slovenia.  The concrete channel was torn out and replaced with cobbles.  To stabilize cut banks, vegetated crib walls with vegetated block stone bases were used.  Fifteen plant species were used and after a few years, more than 200 species had colonized the restored riparian area.

Graph from Rodolf Gil’s presentation showing how the percentage of organic matter in agricultural soils decreases over time when conventional plowing is used.

The next presentation was by an Argentine agricultural engineer, Rodolfo Gil, from the Soil Institute at the National University of Buenos Aires.  After giving an introduction to the components of agricultural soils, Professor Gil illustrated how the percentage of organic matter in soil progressively decreases with the number of years of cultivation.  However, this decrease can be slowed by use of direct seeding in contrast to conventional cultivation with plowing.  Direct seeding with crop rotation increases soil porosity and water capacity.  Use of this method has expanded significantly in Argentina over the past 35 years.  And, use of sustainable agriculture (adopting plants and cultivation methods to the local environment) has become increasingly popular in contrast to less sustainable monoculture (single crop) agriculture.

Newly-elected& retiring officers of the IECA Iberoamerican Chapter. L to R: Ricardo Schmalbach (Ecuador & Colombia), Paul Gonzalez (USA), Paula Pereira (Brazil), Valentin Contreras (Spain), Beatriz Fernández (Spain), Nicky Araujo (Costa Rica& Panama), and Juan Carlos Hernández (Guatemala).

 

Later that day, the Iberoamerican Chapter of IECA held a meeting to elect new officers. Lead conference organizer, Valentin Contreras of BonTerra Iberica (a Granada-based company specializing in erosion and sediment control products), was elected President taking over from Rafael “Nicky” Araujo of Costa Rica and Panama.  For the first time, two women were elected chapter officers:  Beatriz Fernández of Spain and Paula Pereira of Brazil.  Juan Carlos Hernandez of Guatemala was also elected, and he has taken on the challenge of chairing the organizing committee for the next CICES Conference which will be held in Antigua, Guatemala in 2014. 

Coming next: Highlights of some of the papers presented at CICES.

View of the Alhambra from the site of our fiesta at the end of the first day of the conference.

Fiesta participants were treated to a performance by a flamenco dancer.

 

China: Corrections to blog posts

I sent copies of my blog posts on the International Debris Flow Workshop to Asian colleagues for whom I have email addresses.  I received several nice replies including one from Rong Zhi Tan who works in Administration at the Chinese Instititue for Mountain Hazards and Environment in Chengdu.  Jane (her English nickname) pointed out three mistakes in my blog posts.  I have made the necessary corrections in my blog posts.  Here they are:

Rong Zhi Tan (Jane) was one of the workshop organizers.  She was a great help to me and speaks excellent English!

My first mistake was the caption on the following photo:

I incorrectly identified the above speaker as Dr. Shuai Zhang. Jane pointed out that this is Dr. Hua-li Pan from the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment in Chengdu. She presented a paper titled, The Mechanism of Debris Flow Downcutting Erosion for Movable Bed and Its Critical Conditions. Dr. Hua-li Pan pointed out that debris flows are more erosive than water or even sediment-laden water.

The second mistake was another incorrect photo caption:

I incorrectly said this Communist Party slogan translates to: It is important that the party and the people communicate. Actually, that was another sign. Jane says this one correctly translates to: It is our duty to protect the roads. Anyone who destroys the road should make compensation according to the law.

 

My third "goof" was the date of the Wenchuan earthquake.  It occurred in 2008, not 2010.  See the following photo from the earthquake memorial.  The stone clock shows 2:28 (PM), 2008-5-12, the time and date of the earthquake.

The reason for my confusion was the date of the catastrophic debris flows in the same area.  They occurred in 2010.  See the following slide:

Slide from Dr. Peng Cui's presentation, Formation Mechanism and Risk Control of Catastrophic Debris Flow Hazards lists the debris flows which occurred in China in 2010.  There were two deadly flows in the Wenchuan area occurring one day apart and causing a total of 128 deaths.

Serbia: Highlights from some of the papers at the 2012 LANDCON Conference

As noted in my last blog post, I attended the “International Conference on Land Conservation” held in Serbia, September 17-21, 2012.  I was honored to co-chair a conference session on “Implemented Global/Regional/National Projects” with Professor Martin Haigh from the UK.  During that session, I presented the results of my survey of erosion control problems in Malingua Pamba, Ecuador on behalf of the IECA SOIL Fund.    

Following are summaries of a few of the papers presented at the conference.  There were numerous excellent presentations, and my selection of those I summarized is admittedly quite arbitrary.  I have tried to include a variety of papers from the countries represented at the conference, the topics addressed, and papers that would be relatively more interesting to erosion and sediment control professionals.   

Landslide Activity and Environmental Change in the Himalaya (Martin Haigh, Department of Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, UNITED KINGDOM).  Professor Haigh gave two presentations at the conference.  The first was his conference keynote paper produced in partnership with J.S. Rawat of Kumaun University in Almora, India.  It concerned the numerous landslides and debris flows triggered by the most severe late-monsoon in 60 years (up to 33mm or 1.3 inches of rain per hour) in the Kumaun Himalaya.  This mountain range is located in northern India, west of Nepal.  At least 43 people were killed in these slides in 2010 which caused damage to roads and buildings in excess of US$125 million.

Haigh and Rawat focused their studies on the causes of the occurrence of and damage from 108 of the landslides.  They found that slope steepness and height of road cuts were the greatest contributing factors to landslide occurrence.  Other factors perceived important by the local population such as urbanization, deforestation, road engineering, and geologic structure turned out to be relatively unimportant.

Martin Haigh identified “chance” (the occurrence of an extreme rainfall event) as the principal contributor to the 2010 landslides in the Almora, India area.  Indians refer to chance or fate as an adhidaivic cause of trouble.

Professor Haigh’s other paper, India Abroad:  International Development Projects of India’s NGOs, looked at Indian organizations and movements involved with development projects outside of India.  He focused his discussions on the philosophies behind these groups and their contrast with Western approaches to development.  Martin pointed out that the West is obsessed with the physical aspects of development rather than social.  Indian NGOs approach development from Hindu perspectives such as Ghandian political economics (creating a community that is in balance with its surroundings), Ananda Marg’s development of agricultural cooperatives, and ISKCON (self-sufficient, sustainable, post-hydrocarbon farming).

Sarvodaya is an Indian NGO which follows the Gandhian principles of self-reliance, no harm, and personal ethics.  They are quite active in agricultural development in Sri Lanka.

Torrent Control in the Context of Climate Changes (Johanes Hübl, Institute of Mountain Risk Engineering, Vienna, AUSTRIA). This conference keynote paper presented a detailed program for preventing, mitigating, and responding to heightened environmental risks associated with climate change.  Hübl talked about the need for improvements in cooperation between science and engineering professionals and the public to raise public awareness of these risks.  Other important measures he discussed included hazard maps to identify vulnerable areas, avoidance of construction in sensitive areas, participative planning (including the public), warning tools, and protection of forests and sensitive soils.  

Johannes Hübl looked at the environmental risks associated with climate change  and how to address them.

 

Conflicting Issues in Controlling Land Degradation and Global Climate Changes (Idefonso Pla Sentis, Department of Environment and Soil Science, University of Lleida, SPAIN).  Professor Pla Sentis presented detailed models showing the complex interactions between soil and water conservation and global climate change.  He pointed out the serious conflict between the need to increase food production for an increasing population and the use of fertilizers, irrigation water, mechanization, and pesticides to achieve these increases.  The problem with these practices is their reliance on carbon-based fuels which produce greenhouse gasses.  Pla Sentis warned us against over-simplifying controls for climate change and soil erosion because no one method works in every area. 

This flow chart from the presentation by Idefonso Pla Sentis points out the complex interrelationships between climate change and impacts to soils.

Effects of Changes in Selected Climatic Factors on Wind Erosion Risks (Jana Podhrázská, Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation, Brno, CZECH REPUBLIC).  Ing. Podhrázská and five Czech colleagues studied wind erosion of soils in Moravia (eastern Czech Republic).  The team used GIS to produce maps illustrating the correlations between increases in warm, dry weather; light textured soil; and vulnerability to wind erosion.  They estimated that at least 10% of arable land in the Czech Republic is potentially at risk of wind erosion. 
      

In my last blog post, I stated that there were representatives from 11 countries at the conference.  I should have said 12.  My apologies to Ms. Podhrázská and the Czech Republic for neglecting to include them!  I forgot about the Czech Republic because I did not get a photo of Ing. Podhrázská.  By the way, “Ing.” is the abbreviation for the professional qualification for European engineers roughly equivalent to P.E. (Professional Engineer) in the USA.

A Hydrological analysis of a Small Watershed with the Purpose of Erosion Using a Geographic Information System (Tekin Susam, Gaziosmanpaşa University, Tokat, TURKEY).  Professor Susam and two Turkish colleagues used GIS techniques to calculate erosion potential in a small watershed in north central Turkey.  Physical and hydrological inputs included slope, aspect, curve of hypsometry (area-altitude relationship), drainage length, drainage density, stream order, and bifurcation ratio.  They noted that the scale of digital elevation data used has considerable effect on the accuracy of the derived data.

Turkish professors İrfan Oğuz (left) and Tekin Susam (right) used GIS to analyze erosion potential in a small watershed. 

Changes in the Properties of Eroded soils in a Long Time Period (Ilyusya Gabbasova, Institute of Biology, Ufa Research Centre, Ufa, RUSSIA).  Professor Gabbasova and four Russian colleagues studied the aggressive water and wind erosion processes in the southern pre-Ural area, southeastern corner of European Russia (Republic of Bashkortostan).  She noted that the thickness of humus and chemical quality of many of the area’s soils have declined over the past 35 years as a result of agricultural practices and chemical fertilizers.  In order to minimize erosion, it will be necessary to decrease cultivation and increase crop rotation.

Torrents and Torrential Floods in Serbia:  Characteristics and Possibilities of its Control (Ana Borisavljević, Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade, SERBIA).  Torrents are defined as small watersheds with steep regimes.  Floods are fairly well controlled in large Serbian rivers but torrent events are more problematic and less predictable.  Ms. Borisavljevic and her two Serbian colleagues found that more than half of torrential floods occur in May and June.  The annual average of these events in Serbia has increased in recent years which they attributed to global climate change.  The research team came up with a plan for control of torrential floods in susceptible watersheds including erosion control measures, check dams, and reforestation.  During the Q&A, I speculated that urbanization may also pay a large role in increased flooding by increasing impervious surfaces which accelerates runoff. 

From the presentation by Ana Borisavljević:  Hideous results of a 2011 torrential flood in Novi Pazar, Serbia.

Sediment Management in the Catchment of the River Ibar in Serbia, Related to the Project of Hydropower System (Slobodan Petković, Institute for Development of Water Resources, Belgrade, SERBIA).  A system of ten dams is currently proposed for the River Ibar but sedimentation of future reservoirs is recognized as a serious associated issue.  Dr. Petković noted that the watershed (7000 km² area) is characterized by a high percentage of bare lands and steep slopes particularly in upstream areas.  The institute modeled sedimentation based on no erosion and sediment controls and including factors such as slope, sheer stress, and flow regime.  Next, they looked at a combination of mitigation measures including erosion control structures and bioengineering to mitigate sedimentation.

Development of a Prespa Lake Watershed Management Plan (Ivan Blinkov, Faculty of Forestry, Saints Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, MACEDONIA).  Professor Blinkov was involved with a multinational team in preparing an “ecosystem-oriented” watershed management plan for the Prespa Lake basin which lies within Macedonia, Albania, and Greece.  The “globally-significant” ecosystem within this basin is under stress for a variety of reasons including unsustainable agricultural, fisheries, forestry, and water management practices.  The project was supported by the UNDP-GEF (United Nations Development Programme – Global Environmental Facility Trust Fund) and faced numerous constraints because of lack of available data.  However, I was impressed with the phenomenal volume of data they were able to process given these limitations.  I compared it very favorably with the efforts of the team which developed the Southeastern New England Water and Related Lands Resources Plan which I worked on as a water resources planner in 1973-74 with the New England River Basins Commission in Boston.  We had no GIS programs or user-friendly PCs back then to use in processing our data.  We even hand colored some of our maps.  Resource planning tools have come a long way in 40 years!

The boundaries (dashed lines) of Macedonia, Albania, and Greece meet in Prespa Lake.
Source:  http://prespa.iwlearn.org/

Impacts of Grain for Green Project (GGP) on Soil Erosion in China (Li Rui, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Yangling, CHINA).  Dr. Li Rui spoke about the innovative GGP in China which involves planting trees and grass on steep slopes.  Around 14.7 million hectares (36.2 million acres) of steep farmland has been converted into grassland and forest land.  As a result, runoff and soil erosion have been reduced and sediment yields have decreased 45 percent in areas where the program has been implemented.  Despite the loss of farm land, the Chinese are able to get higher grain yields through more intensive cultivation and double cropping in more gently sloping areas.  Moreover, farmers’ per capita net income has increased significantly. 

Much of the steeply-sloping land in this Chinese community has been converted to forest from cropland through the government's Grain to Green program. Photo by Jianguo "Jack" Liu.  Source: http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2009/peer-pressure-plays-major-role-in-environmental-behavior/

The conference featured poster presentations.  Several posters dealt with applications of erosion and sediment control technology. 

Notice that the above poster incorrectly says “Faculty of Fores” rather than Faculty of Forestry.  The entire conference was in English, the conference abstracts were published in English, and even the posters (many from Serbian graduate students) were in English.  Obviously, some of the speakers had difficulties with English (only Professor Haigh and I were native English speakers).  And yes, I got some good-natured chuckles (to myself) at some of their linguistic faux-pas.  However, I greatly admired the efforts at English communication of the Serbians, Russians, Turks, Chinese, and others at the conference whose native languages differ greatly from English.  Sure, I know they study English in school, but I kept wondering how in the hell they were able to do as well as they did! Smarter than me, I guess!

Coming next:  My mad dash across southern Europe by train - part 1