Check dam impact on sediment loads: example of the Guerbe River in the Swiss Alps – a catchment scale experiment

do Prado, Ariel Henrique; Mair, David; Garefalakis, Philippos; Schmidt, Chantal; Whittaker, Alexander; Castelltort, Sebastien; Schlunegger, Fritz (2024). Check dam impact on sediment loads: example of the Guerbe River in the Swiss Alps – a catchment scale experiment. Hydrology and earth system sciences, 28(5), pp. 1173-1190. European Geosciences Union EGU 10.5194/hess-28-1173-2024

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The construction of check dams is a common practice around the world where the aim is to reduce the damage by flooding events through mountain streams. However, quantifying the effectiveness of such engineering structures has remained very challenging and requires well-selected case studies, since the outcome of such an evaluation depends on site-specific geometric, geologic and climatic conditions. Conventionally, the check dams’ effectiveness has been estimated using information about how the bedload sediment flux in the stream changes after the check dams are constructed. A permanent lowering of the bedload flux not only points to a success in reducing the probability of sediment transport occurrence but also implies that the sediment input through the system is likely to decrease. Here, we applied a method for data acquisition and two different equations (Meyer-Peter–Müller and Recking approach) to estimate and compare the sediment transport in a mountain stream in Switzerland under engineered and non-engineered conditions. Whereas the first equation is derived from a classical approach that is based on flume experiment data with a slope of less than 0.02mm

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