Mass soil movement on terraced landscapes of the Mediterranean mountain areasa case study of the Iberian Range, Spain

  1. J. Arnáez 2
  2. N. Lana-Renault 2
  3. P. Ruiz-Flaño 2
  4. N. Pascual 2
  5. T. Lasanta 1
  1. 1 Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología
    info

    Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología

    Zaragoza, España

    ROR https://ror.org/039ssy097

  2. 2 Universidad de La Rioja
    info

    Universidad de La Rioja

    Logroño, España

    ROR https://ror.org/0553yr311

Revista:
Cuadernos de investigación geográfica: Geographical Research Letters
  1. Seeger, Manuel (coord.)

ISSN: 0211-6820,  1697-9540

Any de publicació: 2017

Volum: 43

Número: 1

Pàgines: 83-100

Tipus: Article

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DOI: 10.18172/CIG.3211 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

Altres publicacions en: Cuadernos de investigación geográfica: Geographical Research Letters

Repositori institucional: lock_openAccés obert Editor

Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible

Resum

Terraces represent one of the most common agricultural landscapes in Mediterranean mountainous regions. However, the demographic and socioeconomic changes occurring in the second half of the last century caused terraces abandonment, leading to the loss of maintenance work required by these agricultural structures, and promoting various erosion processes, in particular the collapse of stone walls and small slides in risers. This paper analyses these mass movements by quantifying their size and frequency and defining the variables involved in their triggering in the upper valleys of Leza, Jubera and Cidacos rivers (Camero Viejo, Iberian Range, Spain), where bench terraces occupied 13,274 hectares (63% of agricultural space). A total amount of 240 small slides were recorded in 53 terraces studied, which means an average of 4.5 slides per plot and 33.1 m3 of material mobilized per 100 m of wall. This study proves that the most decisive causes for slides to start are related to soil infiltration capacity, as well as to the way in which water runs down the hillside.

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Informació de finançament

Support for this research was provided by the project ESPAS (Water and sediment production scenarios on the basis of vegetation and land use changes: effects of active and passive land management) (grant nº CGL2015-65569-R) which is funded by MINECO/FEDER.

Finançadors

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