Effect of vegetation removal on soil erosion and bank stability in agricultural drainage ditches

Abstract

Maintenance of agricultural drainage ditches can be difficult to optimize if farmers have no guidelines on where to target their maintenance efforts. A main concern is whether ditch banks will experience soil erosion or mass movement (failure). In order to help identify sites that are more likely to experience soil erosion and/or mass movement, soil susceptibility to detachment was assessed in this study using a cohesive strength meter (CSM) and measurements of shear strength in unsaturated direct shear tests. The results showed that soil roots play an important role in stabilizing ditch banks against mass movement and in reducing the rate of soil detachment. A positive stabilizing effect was detected by CSM and confirmed by shear strength measurements. The conclusion is that native vegetation should be maintained on ditch banks, instead of being removed during maintenance work as is currently the case

Keywords

bank erosion; roots density; soil shear strength; ditch status evaluation; ditch management

Published in

Land
2020, volume: 9, number: 11, article number: 441

SLU Authors

• Avilés, Daniel

  • Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • University of San Simón (UMSS)

• Wesström, Ingrid

  • Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Joel, Abraham

  • Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Global goals (SDG)

SDG2 Zero hunger
SDG12 Responsible consumption and production
SDG15 Life on land

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Soil Science
Environmental Management

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land9110441

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/109487