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