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Holocene sediment budgets - RheinLUCIFS

 

 

 

Holocene Sediment Fluxes and Sediment Budgets in the Upper Rhine Area

 

Research team:  P. Houben, M. Schmidt, K.-M. Moldenhauer, H. Thiemeyer, J. Wunderlich,

Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (2003-2007). Part of the German IGBP-PAGES research initiative 'RheinLUCIFS'.

Sediment budget for Rockenberg catchment         Sediment budget for Nidda catchment

 

 

 

 

 

Project affiliation
 

Objectives

  • explore past to present response of fluvial systems to human activities and climate change
  • Holocene sediment budgets for different scaled catchments in the Upper Rhine area
  • developing budget approaches based on available digital data
  • data evaluation of available spatially distributed data on soils and sediments
  • chronological resolution of man-induced catchment fluxes for the period of agriculture (i.e. 7500 yrs.)
  • delivering a spatially and temporally resolved model of Holocene sediment flux as influenced by man and climate
 

Rationale

  • Our scientific objectives are dedicated to questions of variable sensitivity, non-linear behaviour at various spatial and temporal scale, and system emergence in fluvial systems. We pursuit a quantitative whole-catchment, systems-based approach that aims linking empirical and modeling approaches.
 

Approach

  • Systems-based approaches (cascading system)
  • sediment budgets
  • Bottom-up strategy for data evaluation: cross-checking of budget approaches derived from
 

Methods

  • datamodeling of available data: DB application and GIS based data processing techniques
  • available digital data: topographical, soil maps, and geological maps (1:25,000), DEMs, aerial photographs and orthophotos, etc.
  • Field based soils and sediments recording
  • DB and GIS applications
  • OSL dating with cross-check by radiocarbon dating

 

Results

  • Holocene sediment budget for the large-scale Nidda catchment; derived from the state authority soil survey data;
  • Derived sediment budgets for 95 subcatchments of 2nd to 5th order and different physiographic settings;

 

Next steps

  • Numerical modeling of slope-slope fluxes (WaTEM/SEDEM applications)
 

Publications

  • Houben, P. (in prep.). An empirical Holocene sediment budget for Rockenberg catchment, Germany. –
  • Houben, P., Henning, J. (in prep.). From landscape occupation to landscape management - Early Medieval cultivation innovation causing the primal large-scale landscape change in Central Europe.
  • Houben, P., & Schmidt, M. (submitted). Data modeling and relational database application in a GIS-based Holocene sediment budget study. Catena.
  • Hofmann, T., Erkens, G., Cohen, K., Houben, P., Seidel, J., Dikau, R. (in review). Holocene floodplain sediment storage and hillslope erosion within the Rhine catchment. Holocene.
  • Houben, P., Hoffmann, T., Zimmermann, A., Dikau, R. 2006. Land use and climatic impacts on the Rhine system during the period of agriculture. Catena, 66: 42–52.
  • Dikau, R., Houben, P., Schrott, L. 2005. Der Sedimenthaushalt geomorphologischer Systeme seit Beginn des menschlichen Einflusses. – In: Deutscher Arbeitskreis für Geomorphologie (Ed.): Die Erdoberfläche, Lebens- und Gestaltungsraum des Menschen - Forschungsstrategische und programmatische Leitlinien zukünftiger geomorphologischer Forschung und Lehre: 31–38; Preprint, Heidelberg.
  • Lang, A., Bork, H.-R., Mäckel, R., Preston, N., Wunderlich, J., & Dikau, R. (2003): Changes in sediment flux and storage within a fluvial system: some examples from the Rhine catchment. - Hydrol. Proc., 17: 3321-3334.
 

Acknowledgment

We gratefully acknowledge the DFG for funding this project as part of the RheinLUCIFS initiative.