Sediment source fingerprinting as an aid to catchment management: A review of the current state of knowledge and a methodological decision-tree for end-users

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Collins, A. L., Pulley, S., Foster, I. D. L., Gellis, A., Porto, P. and Horowitz, A. J. 2017. Sediment source fingerprinting as an aid to catchment management: A review of the current state of knowledge and a methodological decision-tree for end-users. Journal of Environmental Management. 194 (1 June), pp. 86-108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.09.075

AuthorsCollins, A. L., Pulley, S., Foster, I. D. L., Gellis, A., Porto, P. and Horowitz, A. J.
Abstract

The growing awareness of the environmental significance of fine-grained sediment fluxes through catchment systems continues to underscore the need for reliable information on the principal sources of this material. Source estimates are difficult to obtain using traditional monitoring techniques, but sediment source fingerprinting or tracing procedures, have emerged as a potentially valuable alternative. Despite the rapidly increasing numbers of studies reporting the use of sediment source fingerprinting, several key challenges and uncertainties continue to hamper consensus among the international scientific community on key components of the existing methodological procedures. Accordingly, this contribution reviews and presents recent developments for several key aspects of fingerprinting, namely: sediment source classification, catchment source and target sediment sampling, tracer selection, grain size issues, tracer conservatism, source apportionment modelling, and assessment of source predictions using artificial mixtures. Finally, a decision-tree representing the current state of knowledge is presented, to guide end-users in applying the fingerprinting approach.

Keywordssuspended sediment sources; source fingerprinting; source tracing; mixing model; uncertainty
Year of Publication2017
JournalJournal of Environmental Management
Journal citation194 (1 June), pp. 86-108
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.09.075
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
FunderDepartment of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Funder project or codeSustainability
Provision of Demonstration test Catchments: LM0304
Publisher's version
Copyright license
CC BY
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online12 Oct 2016
Publication process dates
Accepted22 Sep 2016
PublisherElsevier
Academic Press Ltd- Elsevier Science Ltd
ISSN0301-4797

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