Handbook for the Assessment of Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Using Environmental Radionuclides

This Handbook is a new comprehensive reference of the methodologies (field, laboratory and desk work) for using radionuclides, primarily 137Cs and210Pb, to establish rates and spatial patterns of soil redistribution within the landscape and determine the geochronology of sediment deposits. It is based on the recent developments made by a global network of research scientists working on soil erosion and sedimentation research using environmental radionuclides. This publication deals with soil erosion and sedimentation. Soil erosion and associated sediment deposition are natural landscape-forming processes that can be greatly accelerated by human intervention through deforestation, overgrazing, and non-sustainable farming practices. Soil erosion and sedimentation may not only cause on-site degradation of the natural resource base, but also off-site problems— downstream sediment deposition in fields, floodplains and water bodies, water pollution, eutrophication and reservoir siltation, etc. —with serious environmental and economic impairment. There is an urgent need for accurate information to quantify the problem and to underpin the selection of effective soil-conservation technologies and sedimentation-remediation strategies, including assessment of environmental and economic impacts. Existing classical techniques to document soil erosion are capable of meeting some of these needs, but they all possess important limitations. The quest for alternative techniques for assessing soil erosion, to complement existing methods, directed attention to the use of environmental radionuclides, in particular fallout as tracers to quantify rates and establish patterns of soil redistribution within the landscape. The concept of a project on the use of environmental radionuclides to quantify soil redistribution was first formulated at an Advisory Group Meeting convened in Vienna, April 1993, by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

nine Contributions Address The Application Of Environmental Radionuclides In Studies Of Soil Erosion And Sedimentation, Beginning With An Overview Of The Issue, Followed By The Design Of Field-sampling Programs; Sampling Methods To Determine Levels Of Cs And Other Environmental Radionuclides; Sample Processing Procedures Used In Radionuclide Analytical Laboratories; Methodologies Used To Determine The Activities Of Cs And Other Environmental Radionuclides Using Gamma Spectrometry; Approaches Used In Determining Reference Values; The Need For Calibration Procedures Called Conversion Models; The Distribution And Behavior Of The Additional Inputs Of Cs From Fallout Resulting From The Accident At Chernobyl; And Alternative Methods And Radionuclides To Overcome Limitations Of The Cs Technique. Lacks A Subject Index. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, Or

"This handbook is an up-to-date resource for soil and environmental scientists, hydrologists, geomorphologists, geologists, agronomists, ecologists, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in these disciplines."--Jacket