Importance of Geology and Geomorphology in Watershed Health Assessment

Abstract

Watersheds constituted by different geology, geomorphology, climates, land uses, soils, ecological communities, and vegetation covers. The watershed landscapes have established over geologic time while being shaped by patterns of climate, vegetation, and lithology. However, understanding the nexus between watershed health, geology and geomorphology has been less considered and requires a deep knowledge of their spatiotemporal scales of evolution. The current article, therefore, attempts to provide a brief review of geology and geomorphology concepts, importance and applications in watershed health assessment. Additionally, a list of most important geologic and geomorphologic criteria for watershed management and assessment provided as well. The provided information provides useful insights for land managers and decision makers and thus helps in the identification of gaps in knowledge that need to be addressed on a priority basis. It is highly suggested that the future developments in watershed health studies have focused in the direction of the geological and geomorphological process, taking advantage of empirical observations, mathematical and conceptual modeling to attain a quantitative description of real watershed health conditions.

Dynamic Analysis Of Soil Erosion-Based Watershed Health

“…However, after more than 40 years, due to increasing degradation, it looks that these activities were not successful (Golrang et al 2013;Spalevic et al 2016). Hence, it is essential to advance and improve land health surveillance approaches to target sustainable land management interventions (Hazbavi, 2018). Towards this objective, the dynamic monitoring of the watershed health can help to detect trends over time, identify emerging problems, direct efforts to stressor impacts mitigation for areas where they are most needed and ultimately track the response of watersheds to different environmental drivers.…”

Geological Heritage Management and Preservation Instruments: Case Study of the Municipality of Conceicao Da Aparecida, Minas Gerais €“ Brazil

“…These have a generally sandy/clay texture, with a granular structure, with high porosity and well drained (Gaspar Junior et al, 2010). Geomorphology comprises both quantitative and qualitative explanations of landscapes and landforms, as well as processes investigations and process interactions creating these forms in temporal and spatial scales (Curovic et al, 2019;Hazbavi, 2018;Renschler and Harbor, 2002). The local geomorphology consists of the Rio Grande Plateau and has altitudes below 1,000 meters, such as the Serras do Veado and Ibituruna, inserted in the context of seas of hills in the south of Minas Gerais .…”

Geomorphological mapping and landform characterization of Semeru volcano after the eruption in 2021

“…This phenomenon illustrates that the area affected by the lahar slide at the time of the 2021 eruption was the path of the lahar flow during the second eruption of Mahameru Volcano. This shows that the dominant process that is currently happening is a description of events in the past with different conditions and intensities, it can be identified based on a geomorphological approach [46]. In this regard, information on process repetition on geomorphological maps is very useful for disaster identification.…”