CRP - Assessment of Soil Erosion through the Use of

Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition

Assessment of Soil Erosion through the Use of ¹³⁷Cs and Related Techniques as a Basis for Soil Conservation, Sustainable Production and Environmental Protection

Objective:

The overall objective of the project was to develop guidelines for estimating soil erosion and sedimentation for sustainable agricultural production and environmental protection. The specific research objectives were: i) To refine (including validation and standardization) relevant methodologies for documenting soil erosion and sedimentation using the Cs-137 technique across a range of environments which can then be used to test and calibrate existing models of soil erosion, and ii) To evaluate the effect of specific land use management on soil erosion for providing data to underpin the selection of soil conservation strategies.

Activities:

The concept of a project on the use of environmental radionuclides to quantify soil redistribution was first formulated at an Advisory Group Meeting held in April 1993 in Vienna. Based on the recommendations of this meeting, two Co-ordinated Research Projects (CRP) were formulated: a CRP on “Assessment of soil erosion through the use of the Cs-137 and related techniques as a basis for soil conservation, sustainable production and environmental protection” co-ordinated by the Joint FAO/IAEA Division, and another CRP on “Sedimentation assessment studies by environmental radionuclides and their application to soil conservation measures” organized by the Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences. The IAEA provided the core funding for the projects, which were implemented during the period 1995 - 2000.
These networks comprised scientists from Research Institutions in Argentina, Australia (2), Brazil, Canada (2), Chile, China (2), France, Greece, Morocco (2), New Zealand, Poland, Romania (2), Russian Federation, Slovakia, Spain, Thailand, UK, USA and Zimbabwe. The launching of these two closely linked IAEA networked projects and the co-ordination meetings to bring together the 25 research groups promoted the exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences, thus making a major contribution to further development of the Cs-137 technique. Much of the initial work focused on validating the approach worldwide and in different environments, and on developing standardised protocols and refining procedures. Calibration models for converting Cs-137 measurements to estimates of soil re-distribution rates on cultivated and uncultivated soils (including software and a technical manual) have been developed by Drs. Walling and Q. He, Agreement Holders of the CRP. They are available on the ftp://ftp.iaea.or.at/dist/gnip/ripc_ihs/ or on the ftp://ftp.iaea.or.at/dist/nafa/csmodel1.exe the latest version for evaluation.
As the efficacy and the value of the technique was increasingly recognised, the participants exploited the potential of the technique in a wide range of studies, including further applications. As the application of the technique required a multi-disciplinary team of trained technical staff and functional laboratory facilities for measuring Cs-137 activities, the IAEA supported the exchange of scientists between the various research groups and the training of young scientists at laboratories with experience in the application of the Cs-137 technique. The participants have published over one hundred individual papers, one special issue of Acta Geologica Hispanica and one special issue of Soil and Tillage Research. A handbook containing the developments made in the refinement and standardisation of the Cs-137 technique for the assessment of soil erosion and sedimentation by both research networks has also been published. All of these publications contain valuable information that should assist countries to collect reliable information on the erosion problems and design appropriate control strategies.
These projects promoted various follow-up activities such as the continuation of research on the use of environmental radionuclides by extending the approach to Pb-210 and Be-7 to obtain erosion rates and soil redistribution patterns at several spatial and time scales within an agricultural context in a new CRP to evaluate the effectiveness of soil conservation measures. Similarly, another CRP has been initiated on the use of nuclear and allied techniques for sediment tracing (finger-printing) with emphasis on sustainable water-shed management and dam sustainability

Participants:

.pdf

Reports:

Report of Consultants Meeting, Vienna, 1995 (.pdf)
Use of ¹³⁷Cs in the Study of Soil Erosion and Sedimentation. Proceedings of the Consultants Meeting, Vienna, 13-16 November, 1998. IAEA-TECDOC-1028, Vienna (1998).
Report of the First RCM, Vienna, 1996 ()
- Frontpage and Table of Contents (.pdf)
- Introduction (.pdf)
- Sections 2 - 5 (.pdf)
- Annex A (.pdf)
- Annex B (.pdf)
- Annex C (.pdf)
- Annex D (.pdf)
- Annex E (.pdf)
Report of the Second RCM, Bucharest, 1998 (.pdf)
Report of the Third RCM, Barcelona, 1999 (.pdf)
Acta Geológica Hispánica V. 35 no. 3-4, 2000
Report of the Fourth and Final RCM, Vienna, 2001 (.pdf)
Soil & Tillage Research. Special Issue: Field Application of The Cs-137 Technique in Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Studies.
- Table of Contents (.pdf)

Project Officer:

F. Zapata