Long-term monitoring of gully erosion in Udmurt Republic, Russia

Abstract

Abstract. This article presents results from the long term-monitoring of gully headcut retreat rates (GHRR) between 1959 and 2015 in different parts of the Udmurt Republic and is based on the use of historical aerial photographs and field observations (measuring the distance from the gully head to a fixed reference point) ( Vanmaercke et al., 2016). It was determined that GHRR decreased from 2.4 to 0.3 m yr −1 during the 1959-1997 observation period and the 1998-2015 period, respectively. Measurements of GHRR were made once per year for most of the monitoring sites, and twice per year (after snow-melt in May, and after the rainy season, OctoberNovember) for gullies located in the eastern part of the study area that contain high proportions of arable land. 80 % of GHRR occurred during the snowmelt period (1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997), and decreased to 53 % since 1997. Spatial patterns of GHRR resulting from changing hydro-climatic factors for different regions of the Udmurt Republic, as a whole, were determined based on the analysis of long-term observations at 6 meteorological stations and 4 gauging stations. The main reason for decreasing GHRR appears to be due to reductions in winter frozen soil depth. The influence of stormwater runoff more clearly occurred within the east and north parts of the VyatkaKama interfluve, whereas higher correlations between GHRR and frozen soil depth were found for the western parts of the Republic. The most significant increases in GHRR appear to have occurred during the warm part of the year (June-July), after > 40 mm rainstorms.

Influence of climate and land use changes on recent trends of soil erosion rates within the Russian Plain

“…It is well‐known that gully head retreat rates on agricultural lands directly depend from surface runoff (Poesen, Nachtergaele, Verstraeten, & Valentin, ). The decreasing trend was found for the gully headcut retreat rates within the Transect 1 (Figure ) during 1978–2015 (Rysin, Grigoriev, Zaytseva, Golosov, & Sharifullin, ). Similar reduction of gully headcut retreat rates is observed in the Kaluga region located in south‐western part of forest zone (S.I.…”

Mapping and spatial‐temporal assessment of gully density in the Middle Volga region, Russia

“…The mean contribution of snow‐melting (1) and rainstorms (2) to mean annual gully head retreat rates (expressed as percent of the mean annual retreat rate) for two timeframes of monitoring: 1978–1997 and 1998–2014. Percentages are based on the results of monitoring campaigns in Udmurt Republic for sites located nearby Izhevsk (see Figure ) (after Rysin et al ., ). [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

“…This is supported by the results of the surface runoff monitoring from arable lands during spring snowmelt undertaken at the Novosil experimental station (the north of the forest‐steppe zone, to the west of the Middle Volga region), which showed a ten‐fold reduction in runoff coefficients since 1990 as compared to the period 1955–1980 (Petelko et al ., ). This trend concurs with observed reductions in gully headcut retreat in the Udmurt region, based on long‐term observations (1978–2015; Figure ; Rysin et al ., , , ). For gullies within cultivated catchments, it was found that average annual headcut retreat rates reduced from 1.5 m yr −1 (1978–1997) to 0.3 m yr −1 (1997–2015).…”

Principal denudation processes and their contribution to fluvial suspended sediment yields in the Upper Yangtze River Basin and Volga River Basin

“…volume of sediment delivered from a gully mouth over a unit of time divided by a gully catchment area (m 3 ·km -2 ·yr -1 ). This parameter characterizes the amount of sediment delivered from gullies into the larger elements of a fluvial network (Rysin 1998):…”

“…Despite strong fluctuations in gully headcut retreat rates between individual years, their tendency to decrease is observed in most of the long-cultivated regions of the Volga River Basin (Rysin 1998). It should be noted, however, that this tendency is most applicable for gullies being developed on former arable land for relatively long periods (up to 200-300 years) and presently reaching a quasi-stable state.…”