Andean sediment response to natural and anthropogenic changes at the catchment scale
type: CreativeWork
description: Changing climate and population growth poses a challenge for the water, food and energy security nexus, particularly in glacier-fed mountainous catchments. Soil erosion, driven by both natural and anthropogenic activities, further exacerbates the challenge for resource security. Soil erosion is contributing to increased levels of sediment in river systems threatening crucial river functions, including crop irrigation, drinking water, and hydroelectricity. Past studies in the Andes regarding soil erosion have indicated that human activities have accelerated soil erosion and rates often exceed natural soil production. To date, the majority of Andean studies have primarily focused on larger eastern catchments, with fewer studies focusing on the western catchments. Although, western Andean catchments are often smaller, many major Andean cities are reliant on upon their upstream water supplies. The identification of sediment sources and improved understandings of in-channel sediment is crucial in the management of water security in Andean mountainous catchments. This thesis presents a new land cover map for the Rio Santa catchment, Peru, that builds on freely available spatial data and includes more specific land cover types than past maps. The Rio Santa catchment, Peru, is a catchment with various land cover types ranging from agriculture, forest and glaciers, all with the potential to threaten food, water and energy security if not managed appropriately. High altitude mountainous catchments often pose a challenge to the accessibility of sampling sites to record ground truth spatial data. However, by combining ground truth points and points created in Google Earth a variety of land cover types could be recorded and spatially mapped. The use of freely available software to record land cover types also promotes repeatability and provides a method for recording land cover data in other mountainous catchments. This thesis aimed to assess the natural and anthropogenic factor…
abstract: Changing climate and population growth poses a challenge for the water, food and energy security nexus, particularly in glacier-fed mountainous catchments. Soil erosion, driven by both natural and anthropogenic activities, further exacerbates the challenge for resource security. Soil erosion is contributing to increased levels of sediment in river systems threatening crucial river functions, including crop irrigation, drinking water, and hydroelectricity. Past studies in the Andes regarding soil erosion have indicated that human activities have accelerated soil erosion and rates often exceed natural soil production. To date, the majority of Andean studies have primarily focused on larger eastern catchments, with fewer studies focusing on the western catchments. Although, western Andean catchments are often smaller, many major Andean cities are reliant on upon their upstream water supplies. The identification of sediment sources and improved understandings of in-channel sediment is crucial in the management of water security in Andean mountainous catchments. This thesis presents a new land cover map for the Rio Santa catchment, Peru, that builds on freely available spatial data and includes more specific land cover types than past maps. The Rio Santa catchment, Peru, is a catchment with various land cover types ranging from agriculture, forest and glaciers, all with the potential to threaten food, water and energy security if not managed appropriately. High altitude mountainous catchments often pose a challenge to the accessibility of sampling sites to record ground truth spatial data. However, by combining ground truth points and points created in Google Earth a variety of land cover types could be recorded and spatially mapped. The use of freely available software to record land cover types also promotes repeatability and provides a method for recording land cover data in other mountainous catchments. This thesis aimed to assess the natural and anthropogenic factor…
author: Kitch, Jessica
language: eng
keywords: Sediment fingerprinting, Andes, Sediment, MixSIAR
date published: 2024-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:49:35Z
provider: University of Plymouth
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Plymouth