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Effect of Vegetation Removal on Soil Erosion and Bank Stability in Agricultural Drainage Ditches

Daniel Aviles, Ingrid Wesström and Abraham Joel
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Daniel Aviles: Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7014, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
Ingrid Wesström: Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7014, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
Abraham Joel: Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7014, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden

Land, 2020, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-14

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 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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