Communicating And Visualizing Erosion-associated Risks To Infrastructure (CAVERTI)

土壤侵蚀是一个重大的环境问题，影响农业、自然环境和城市地区，其方式是与泥沙有关的道路、建筑物和基础设施（如供水、供气和供电网络）的破坏，以及对洪水风险、水质、营养丰富的上层土壤流失、水道沉积和水体富营养化的影响。项目团队的利益相关者对保护资产（如用于运输和监测的管道和仪表）、新资产的定位和沉积物清除成本非常感兴趣。这些问题突出表明，需要更好地了解侵蚀发生的地点、如何减少侵蚀风险，并需要有效地向农民、土地管理者和决策者等利益攸关方传达缓解战略。拟议的工作将确定最易受土壤侵蚀影响的景观部分，以便利用在早期nerc资助的两个项目中开发的新的土壤侵蚀模拟方法，针对这些地区进行缓解。利用经验可测的土壤颗粒输运距离和虚拟速度，以尺度无关的方式解释了水沙输运的差异。基于细胞和基于颗粒的方法相结合，模拟单个沉积物颗粒的运动和“生活史”，从而可以确定特定地点在特定时间段后的土壤侵蚀位置。因此，该模型能够识别，例如，进入河流的土壤来自哪里，从源头到河流需要多长时间，准确地解决我们的利益相关者确定的需求。该提案的合作伙伴组织是威尔河信托基金会，它负责整个威尔河流域的景观和水道的养护、保护、修复和改善。信托基金已经确定了泥沙进入达勒姆附近的Brancepeth Beck的问题，这对当地的一系列基础设施构成了直接威胁，包括道路、桥梁、涵洞、电力塔和埋地服务，并对下游更广泛的基础设施构成间接威胁，如城市地区、道路、桥梁、配电网络、发电设施、污水处理、排水和通信系统。因此，人们对在当地农场采取缓解措施以减少暴雨期间泥沙移动的风险非常感兴趣。该项目将以Brancepeth Beck作为土壤侵蚀对基础设施造成风险的案例研究，通过应用土壤侵蚀模型，并与当地农民、磨损河流信托基金和其他利益相关者合作，开发新的决策支持工具，直接解决沉积物运输问题。将使用决策支持矩阵（DSM）方法，包括开发一系列可视化和通信工具，以帮助评估和比较与不同耕作方法相关的风险，并探索管理径流的选择。dsm将采用参与式行动研究方法，通过与利益攸关方的直接接触来制定，确保所使用的示例和语言对最终用户有意义。事实证明，DSM方法在提高利益相关者决策的信心方面是有效的，从而使景观更具弹性。dsm已在英国被EA和Defra等机构广泛采用，并已成功地应用于更广泛的决策支持框架以及多个尺度的建模。与磨损河流信托基金和与他们合作的农民的接触表明，他们对通过使用模型识别沉积物来源以及使用DSM方法开发通信和可视化工具来减少土壤侵蚀风险有浓厚的兴趣。

Soil erosion is a major environmental problem, affecting agriculture, the natural environment and urban areas through sediment-related damage to roads, buildings and infrastructure such as water, gas and electricity supply networks and its impact on flood risk, water quality, loss of the nutrient-rich upper soil layers, sedimentation of waterways and eutrophication of water bodies. There is significant interest amongst stakeholders with whom the project team have engaged in protecting assets such as pipes and gauges for transport and monitoring, where to locate new assets and the costs of sediment removal. These issues highlight the need for a better understanding of where erosion is happening, how to reduce erosion risk and for effective ways of communicating mitigation strategies to stakeholders such as farmers, land managers and policy-makers.The proposed work will identify the parts of the landscape most susceptible to soil erosion in order to target those areas for mitigation using a new soil-erosion modelling approach developed in two earlier NERC-funded projects. Empirically measureable transport distance and virtual velocity of soil particles are used to account for the difference in water and sediment transport in a scale-independent way. A cell-based and particle-based approach are combined to simulate the movement and 'life history' of individual sediment particles, making it possible to determine where soil eroded from a particular site is located after a specified period of time. The model is thus capable of identifying, for example, where the soil entering a river came from and how long it took to travel from its source site to the river, addressing precisely the need identified by our stakeholders.The partner organization in this proposal is the Wear Rivers Trust which is responsible for conservation, protection, rehabilitation and improvement of the landscape and watercourses of the whole River Wear catchment. The Trust have identified the problem that silt moving into Brancepeth Beck near Durham represents a direct threat to a range of local infrastructure including roads, bridges, culverts, electricity pylons and buried services and an indirect threat to wider infrastructure downstream such as urban areas, roads, bridges, distribution networks, power generation facilities, sewerage, drainage and communications systems. There is thus considerable interest in mitigation measures that could be introduced on farms in the locality to reduce the risk of silt movement during heavy rainfall events. This project will use Brancepeth Beck as a case study in risks to infrastructure due to soil erosion, addressing directly the problem of sediment transport through applying the soil erosion model and developing new decision support tools in partnership with local farmers, the Wear Rivers Trust and other stakeholders. The Decision Support Matrix (DSM) approach will be used, involving the development of a range of visualization and communication tools to help assess and compare the risks associated with different farming practices and explore options to manage runoff. The DSMs will be developed through direct engagement with stakeholders employing a Participatory Action Research approach, ensuring that the examples and language used makes sense to end-users. The DSM approach has proven effective at increasing stakeholders' confidence in making decisions to make landscapes more resilient. DSMs have been taken up widely in the UK by bodies such as the EA and Defra, and have been successfully employed within wider decision support frameworks alongside modelling at multiple scales. Engagement with the Wear Rivers Trust and farmers with whom they work indicates a strong interest in reducing soil erosion risk through identifying the source of sediment using models and in developing communication and visualization tools using the DSM approach.