High-resolution assessment of riverbank erosion and stabilisation techniques with associated water quality implications

Emma Hayes; S  Higgins; Donal J.  Mullan; Josie Geris

doi:10.1080/15715124.2023.2214866

High-resolution assessment of riverbank erosion and stabilisation techniques with associated water quality implications

Emma Hayes^* (Corresponding Author), S Higgins, Donal J. Mullan, Josie Geris

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Agriculture is a key contributor to poor water quality, but the sources of sediment and nutrient losses from agricultural catchments – including from riverbank erosion – are highly variable. Riverbank erosion is particularly difficult to quantify and control. Here, we developed a quick assessment approach to quantify riverbank erosion rates and associated sediment and nutrient loading rates into waterways using airborne LiDAR combined with field-collected data. We applied this approach and explored its relationships to water quality at four sites within the Blackwater catchment in Northern Ireland for two analysis periods. GIS LiDAR image differencing revealed that volume changes in riverbank elevation equated to average erosion rates which indicated spatial and temporal variability in erosion rates. Combining the erosion rates with in-situ riverbank bulk density and total extractable phosphorus content provided sediment and phosphorus loading rates. The relative differences between estimated erosion at the different sites corresponded well with in-stream suspended sediment variations, but patterns for total phosphorus concentrations were more complex. We conclude that the use of LiDAR combined with field data is an innovative means for riverbank erosion quantification. Furthermore, by using LiDAR-to-LiDAR analyses, the reductions in erosion, sediment, and phosphorus loading rates following riverbank stabilization techniques can be determined.

Original language	English
Journal	International Journal of River Basin Management
Early online date	26 May 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/15715124.2023.2214866 https://doi.org/10.1080/15715124.2023.2214866
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 26 May 2023

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
Thanks go to AFBI (Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute) for access to BlueSky 2021 LiDAR data, OpenData NI for access to 2014 LiDAR DTM data, the Queen’s University Belfast Centre for GIS and Geomatics for access to 2020 LiDAR data, and Gillian Nicholl (AFBI) for assistance with field data collection. Thanks also go to AFBI Water Quality Unit Freshwater Laboratory Newforge Lane for water quality analysis.

FundingThis research was funded by the NERC QUADRAT DTP [grant number 2280708]. The riverbank stabilization work at Site 3 was funded by the CatchmentCARE project (project reference IVA5058—www. catchmentcare.eu). The CatchmentCARE project is supported by the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). The views and opinions expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect those of the European Com-mission or the SEUPB

Data Availability Statement

No data is publicly available due to anonymity granted to landowners participating in this research.

Keywords

LiDAR
riverbank erosion
nutrient and sediment loading rates

Access to Document

Hayes_etal_IJRBM_High-resolution_assessment_of_VOR
© 2023 Queen’s University Belfast. Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manu-script in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Final published version, 2.13 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "Agriculture is a key contributor to poor water quality, but the sources of sediment and nutrient losses from agricultural catchments – including from riverbank erosion – are highly variable. Riverbank erosion is particularly difficult to quantify and control. Here, we developed a quick assessment approach to quantify riverbank erosion rates and associated sediment and nutrient loading rates into waterways using airborne LiDAR combined with field-collected data. We applied this approach and explored its relationships to water quality at four sites within the Blackwater catchment in Northern Ireland for two analysis periods. GIS LiDAR image differencing revealed that volume changes in riverbank elevation equated to average erosion rates which indicated spatial and temporal variability in erosion rates. Combining the erosion rates with in-situ riverbank bulk density and total extractable phosphorus content provided sediment and phosphorus loading rates. The relative differences between estimated erosion at the different sites corresponded well with in-stream suspended sediment variations, but patterns for total phosphorus concentrations were more complex. We conclude that the use of LiDAR combined with field data is an innovative means for riverbank erosion quantification. Furthermore, by using LiDAR-to-LiDAR analyses, the reductions in erosion, sediment, and phosphorus loading rates following riverbank stabilization techniques can be determined.",

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note = "Acknowledgements Thanks go to AFBI (Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute) for access to BlueSky 2021 LiDAR data, OpenData NI for access to 2014 LiDAR DTM data, the Queen{\textquoteright}s University Belfast Centre for GIS and Geomatics for access to 2020 LiDAR data, and Gillian Nicholl (AFBI) for assistance with field data collection. Thanks also go to AFBI Water Quality Unit Freshwater Laboratory Newforge Lane for water quality analysis. FundingThis research was funded by the NERC QUADRAT DTP [grant number 2280708]. The riverbank stabilization work at Site 3 was funded by the CatchmentCARE project (project reference IVA5058—www. catchmentcare.eu). The CatchmentCARE project is supported by the European Union{\textquoteright}s INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). The views and opinions expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect those of the European Com-mission or the SEUPB",

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N1 - Acknowledgements Thanks go to AFBI (Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute) for access to BlueSky 2021 LiDAR data, OpenData NI for access to 2014 LiDAR DTM data, the Queen’s University Belfast Centre for GIS and Geomatics for access to 2020 LiDAR data, and Gillian Nicholl (AFBI) for assistance with field data collection. Thanks also go to AFBI Water Quality Unit Freshwater Laboratory Newforge Lane for water quality analysis. FundingThis research was funded by the NERC QUADRAT DTP [grant number 2280708]. The riverbank stabilization work at Site 3 was funded by the CatchmentCARE project (project reference IVA5058—www. catchmentcare.eu). The CatchmentCARE project is supported by the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). The views and opinions expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect those of the European Com-mission or the SEUPB

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N2 - Agriculture is a key contributor to poor water quality, but the sources of sediment and nutrient losses from agricultural catchments – including from riverbank erosion – are highly variable. Riverbank erosion is particularly difficult to quantify and control. Here, we developed a quick assessment approach to quantify riverbank erosion rates and associated sediment and nutrient loading rates into waterways using airborne LiDAR combined with field-collected data. We applied this approach and explored its relationships to water quality at four sites within the Blackwater catchment in Northern Ireland for two analysis periods. GIS LiDAR image differencing revealed that volume changes in riverbank elevation equated to average erosion rates which indicated spatial and temporal variability in erosion rates. Combining the erosion rates with in-situ riverbank bulk density and total extractable phosphorus content provided sediment and phosphorus loading rates. The relative differences between estimated erosion at the different sites corresponded well with in-stream suspended sediment variations, but patterns for total phosphorus concentrations were more complex. We conclude that the use of LiDAR combined with field data is an innovative means for riverbank erosion quantification. Furthermore, by using LiDAR-to-LiDAR analyses, the reductions in erosion, sediment, and phosphorus loading rates following riverbank stabilization techniques can be determined.

AB - Agriculture is a key contributor to poor water quality, but the sources of sediment and nutrient losses from agricultural catchments – including from riverbank erosion – are highly variable. Riverbank erosion is particularly difficult to quantify and control. Here, we developed a quick assessment approach to quantify riverbank erosion rates and associated sediment and nutrient loading rates into waterways using airborne LiDAR combined with field-collected data. We applied this approach and explored its relationships to water quality at four sites within the Blackwater catchment in Northern Ireland for two analysis periods. GIS LiDAR image differencing revealed that volume changes in riverbank elevation equated to average erosion rates which indicated spatial and temporal variability in erosion rates. Combining the erosion rates with in-situ riverbank bulk density and total extractable phosphorus content provided sediment and phosphorus loading rates. The relative differences between estimated erosion at the different sites corresponded well with in-stream suspended sediment variations, but patterns for total phosphorus concentrations were more complex. We conclude that the use of LiDAR combined with field data is an innovative means for riverbank erosion quantification. Furthermore, by using LiDAR-to-LiDAR analyses, the reductions in erosion, sediment, and phosphorus loading rates following riverbank stabilization techniques can be determined.

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DO - 10.1080/15715124.2023.2214866

M3 - Article

SN - 1571-5124

JO - International Journal of River Basin Management

JF - International Journal of River Basin Management

ER -

High-resolution assessment of riverbank erosion and stabilisation techniques with associated water quality implications

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Keywords

Access to Document

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