Soil erosion has become a serious problem in recent decades due to unhalted trends of unsustainable land use practices. Assessment of soil erosion is a prominent tool in planning and conservation of soil and water resource ecosystems. The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was applied to Nyabarongo River Catchment that drains about 8413.75 km² (33%) of the total Rwanda coverage and a small par...

Satellite soil moisture observations often require the enhancement of spatial resolution prior to being used in climatic and hydrological studies. This study employs the thermal inertia theory to downscale the 36 km radiometric data of the NASA’s Soil Moisture Active/Passive Mission (SMAP) into 1 km resolution. Regressions between daily temperature difference and daily mean soil moisture were e...

Phosphorus (P) export from agricultural catchments can accelerate freshwater eutrophication. Landscape-based remedial measures can reduce edge-of-field P losses. However, stream channel hydraulics and fluvial sediment properties can modify the forms and amounts of P exported by the time it reaches the catchment outlet. This study examines if land use, fluvial sediment properties, and storm flow...

The virtual elimination of the principal point sources of human bacterial pollution through advanced treatment systems has not produced 100% compliance with microbial standards at all UK bathing water locations where they have been installed. This is partly explained by the existence of diffuse bacterial pollution derived from agricultural activities within catchments draining to the bathing zo...

The lack of hydrological data for urbanizing watersheds in developing countries is one of the challenges facing decision making. Msimbazi River is located in the city center of Dar es Salaam and is highly influenced by human activities; this includes dense populations that are characterized by informal settlements. The catchment is currently undergoing flooding, which triggers a dilemma in its ...

Rainfall-runoff models are used for various applications, ranging from the estimation of catchment water yield to the estimation of land use and climate change impacts on runoff characteristics. Most rainfall-runoff models can be calibrated successfully to reproduce the recorded runoff, however it is difficult to determine appropriate parameter values to use for modelling runoff in an ungauged ...

We evaluated the impacts of natural wetlands and various land uses on stream nitrogen concentration in two grassland-dominated catchments in eastern Hokkaido, Japan. Analyzing land use types in drainage basins, measuring denitrification potential of its soil, and water sampling in all seasons of 2003 were performed. Results showed a highly significant positive correlation between the concentrat...

Land use change is the most significant driver linked to global species extinctions. In Northern Australia, the landscape is still relatively intact with very low levels of clearing. However, a re-energized political discourse around creating a northern food bowl means that currently intact ecosystems in northern Australia could be under imminent threat from increased land clearing and water ex...

This paper presents a new method of representing flow duration curves (FDC) using a logarithmic transformation. The FDC has been defined using two parameters – the ‘cease to flow’ point, and the slope of the FDC. This method for defining the FDC has been applied to 23 sub-catchments of the Burdekin River in North Queensland, Australia. The two parameters defining the FDC have been related to th...