| Title: | Modelling sediment fluxes in the Danube River Basin with SWAT |
| Author(s): | Vigiak O; Malago A; Bouraoui F; Vanmaercke M; Obreja F; Poesen J; Habersack H; Feher J; Groselj S; |
| Address: | "European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Directorate D - Sustainable Resources, Italy; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen, Department of Geography, Munich, Germany. Electronic address: olga.vigiak@gmail.com. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Directorate D - Sustainable Resources, Italy. Division of Geography, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, Heverlee, Belgium; Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Brussels, Belgium; Departement de Geographie, Universite de Liege, Liege, Belgium. River Forecast, Hydrology and Hydrogeology Service, SIRET Water Branch, Bacau, Romania. Division of Geography, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, Heverlee, Belgium. Christian Doppler Laboratory for Advanced Methods in River Monitoring, Modelling and Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 107, 1190 Vienna, Austria. Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management, University of Debrecen, Hungary. International Sava River Basin Commission, Branimirova 29, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.236 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-1026 (Electronic) 0048-9697 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Sediment management is of prior concern in the Danube Basin for provision of economic and environmental services. This study aimed at assessing current (1995-2009) sediment fluxes of the Danube Basin with SWAT model and identifying sediment budget knowledge gaps. After hydrologic calibration, hillslope gross erosion and sediment yields were broadly calibrated using ancillary data (measurements in plots and small catchments, and national and European erosion maps). Mean annual sediment concentrations (SSC) from 269 gauging stations (2968 station-year entries; median 19mg/L, interquartile range IQR 10-36mg/L) were used for calibrating in-stream sediments. SSC residuals (simulations-observations) median was 2mg/L (IQR -14; +22mg/L). In the validation dataset (172 gauging stations; 1457 data-entries, median 17mg/L, IQR 10-28), median residual was 9mg/L (IQR -9; +39mg/L). Percent bias in an independent dataset of annual sediment yields (SSY; 689 data-entries in 95 stations; median 52t/km(2)/y, IQR 20-151t/km(2)/y) was -21.5%. Overall, basin-wide model performance was considered satisfactory. Sediment fluxes appeared overestimated in some regions (Sava and Velika Morava), and underestimated in others (Siret-Prut and Romanian Danube), but unbiased elsewhere. According to the model, most sediments were generated by hillslope erosion. Streambank degradation contributed about 5% of sediments, and appeared important in high stream power Alpine reaches. Sediment trapping in reservoirs and floodplain deposition was probably underestimated and counterbalanced by high stream deposition. Factor analysis showed that model underestimations were correlated to Alpine and karst areas, whereas underestimations occurred in high seismicity areas of the Lower Danube. Contemporary sediment fluxes were about one third of values reported for the 1980s for several tributaries of the Middle and Lower Danube. Knowledge gaps affecting the sediment budget were identified in the contributions of some erosion processes (glacier erosion, gully erosion and mass movements), and in-stream sediment dynamics" |
| Keywords: | Danube Swat Sediment yield Suspended sediment concentration; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEVigiak, Olga Malago, Anna Bouraoui, Faycal Vanmaercke, Matthias Obreja, Florin Poesen, Jean Habersack, Helmut Feher, Janos Groselj, Samo eng Netherlands 2017/05/17 Sci Total Environ. 2017 Dec 1; 599-600:992-1012. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.236. Epub 2017 May 11" |
