Author(s): Federica Cotecchia; Umberto Fratino; Luigi Fanelli
Linked Author(s): Umberto Fratino
Keywords: Water erosion process; Suction; Silt; Clay; Sand; Runoff; Unsaturated soil
Abstract: The morphological evolution of the landscape and the relating instability processes and soil transport phenomena in Southern Italy are the result of weathering and water erosion processes. The paper presents the preliminary results of an ongoing multidisciplinary research aiming at the assessment of the different types of erosion forms developing in different soil formations which are responsible for significant soil losses. As well, the research objective is the understanding of the sequence of processes producing the observed erosion phenomena and, in the long term, the proposal of rational measures able to mitigate erosion and the consequent transport and sedimentation processes. In order to achieve these objectives, the research is developed, on one side, through both in-situ and laboratory phenomenological analyses of the soil characteristics and water erosion processes; on the other side, through numerical analysis of the phenomena, implementing both the in-situ and the laboratory observations.
Year: 2004