Concentrated flow erosion rates reduced through biological geotextiles

Abstract

Soil erosion by concentrated flow can cause serious environmental damage. Erosion-control geotextiles have considerable potential for reducing concentrated flow erosion. However, limited data are available on the erosion-reducing potential of geotextiles. In this study, the effectiveness of three biological geotextiles in reducing soil losses during concentrated flow is investigated. Hereto, runoff was simulated in a concentrated flow flume, filled with an erodible sandy loam on three slope gradients (13·5, 27·0 and 41·5%). Treatments included three biological geotextiles (borassus, buriti and bamboo) and one bare soil surface. Darcy–Weisbach friction coefficients ranged from 0·01 to 2·84. The highest values are observed for borassus covered soil surfaces, followed by buriti, bamboo and bare soil, respectively. The friction coefficients are linearly correlated with geotextile thickness. For the specific experimental conditions of this study, borassus geotextiles reduced soil detachment rate on average to 56%, buriti geotextiles to 59% and bamboo geotextiles to 66% of the soil detachment rate for bare soil surfaces. Total flow shear stress was the hydraulic parameter best predicting soil detachment rate for bare and geotextile covered surfaces (R² = 0·75–0·84, p < 0·001, n = 12–15). The highest resistance against soil detachment was observed for the borassus covered soil surfaces, followed by buriti, bamboo and bare soil surfaces, respectively. Overall, biological geotextiles are less effective in controlling concentrated flow erosion compared with interrill erosion. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

The impact of cotton geotextiles on soil and water losses from Mediterranean rainfed agricultural land

“…Also, similar results were found by Jankauskas et al (2008a,b) in Lithuania when used on road embankments. Smets et al (2009) found that rill and gully erosion can be controlled by means of biological geotextiles either on medium or steep slopes. Davies et al (2006) have also shown the use of geotextiles can be a positive strategy for soil and water conservation.…”

Field studies on the soil loss reduction effectiveness of three biodegradable geotextiles

“…Their effectiveness is comparable to artificial materials tested at lower slopes (Chen et al, 2011). The selected materials also presented enhanced effectiveness with respect to alternative natural textiles, see, for instance Smets et al (2009Smets et al ( , 2011b. This behaviour may be also attributed to the experimental conditions (including natural rainfall), which did not favour concentrated erosion processes.…”

“…Significant studies have also entailed the preparation and testing of advanced textiles including innovative materials. Geotextile assessments have been conducted both in laboratory (Smets et al, 2009) and field conditions (Jankauskas et al, 2012); however, field-based observations more reliably replicate erosion and runoff mechanisms (Smets et al, 2011b). More recently, experimental observations have been coupled with soil erosion models to improve the performance of predictive tools (Smets et al, 2011a).…”

Impact of Forest Road Construction on Topsoil Erosion and Hydro-Physical Soil Properties in a Semi-Arid Mountainous Ecosystem in Turkey

“…It is reported that in the long run, by vegetation efforts along with cut slope and fill slope, soil loss can be reduced by at least 30% and this ratio can reach 90% [27]. As a precaution in the short term, and geotextile and blanket applications in slope have been reported to decrease soil loss [40] significantly and improve soil quality properties [41]. Also, soil properties affecting K value affect the soil loss in cut and fill slope through to the forest road [42].…”