Quantification of potential recruitment of large woody debris in mountain catchments considering the effects of vegetation on hydraulic and geotechnical bank erosion and shallow landslides

¹ Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH), School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (HAFL), Laenggasse 85, 3052 Zollikofen, Switzerland
² University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Peter-Jordan-Strasse 82, 1190 Vienna, Austria
³ Cardno, P.O. Box 1236, Oxford, 38655 Mississippi, United States of America
⁴ The University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, Scotland

Abstract

Large woody debris (LWD) exacerbates flood damages near civil structures and in urbanized areas and the awareness of LWD as a risk is becoming more and more relevant. The recruitment of “fresh” large woody debris has been documented to play a significant role of the total amount of wood transported during flood events in mountain catchments. Predominately, LWD recruitment due to hydraulic and geotechnical bank erosion and shallow landslides contribute to high volumes of wood during floods. Quantifying the effects of vegetation on channel and slope processes is extremely complex. This manuscript therefore presents the concepts that are being implemented in a new modelling framework that aims to improve the quantification of vegetation effects on LWD recruitment processes. One of the focuses of the model framework is the implementation of the effect of spatio-temporal distribution of root reinforcement in recruitment processes such as bank erosion and shallow landslides in mountain catchments. Further, spatio-temporal precipitation patterns will be considered using a probabilistic approach to account for the spatio-temporal precipitation variability to estimate a LWD recruitment correction coefficient. Preliminary results are herein presented and discussed in form of a case study in the Swiss Prealps.