García Agudo, E.

Queralt, I.

Zapata, F.

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

195
Assessment of soil erosion and sedimentation
through the use of the 137Cs and related techniques
I. QUERALT(1), F. ZAPATA(2) and E. GARCÍA AGUDO(3)
(1) Institute of Earth Sciences "Jaume Almera" CSIC. Natural Hazards Department.
Solé Sabarís St. s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
(2) Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Applications in Food and Agriculture
International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
(3) Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences, International Atomic Energy Agency
P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria.
ACTA GEOLOGICA HISPANICA,v. 35 (2000),nº 3-4,p. 195-196
During the last decades the international scientific community has been increasingly aware of both the risk and the ef-
fects of soil erosion and sedimentation processes cause to sustainable agricultural activities and the quality of the superfi-
cial environment. Soil erosion is a major environmental worldwide concern of our time. Over the past thirty years two main
streams of thought have developed about the effects of soil erosion. The first one, mainly based on ecologist and env i r o n-
mentalist criteria, believes that soil erosion is a true disease on the land that quickly depletes the soil production capacity
with some additional subsequent effects such as eutrophication of water reservoirs and pollution of natural waters. The se-
cond one supports that soil erosion is a natural process shaping the overall landscape. Development of fertile soils on ri-
ver va l l eys can be attributed to erosion processes in the upper reaches of catchment. Loss of productivity due to soil ero-
sion on agricultural lands can be easily compensated by small addition of fert i l i s e r s .
W h a t ever position we adopt a development of methods offering reliable data is needed. The use of models based on ra-
d i ogenic isotopes distribution in soil profiles can offer va l u a ble data set both in soil erosion and deposition. In addition,
soil redistribution can be eff e c t ive ly assessed. These methods can be applied in a huge range of soil conditions in diff e r e n t
g e ographic zones and the results are comparable at global scale. The International Atomic Energy A g e n cy (IAEA) spon-
sored since 1995, the implementation of two co-ordinated research projects (CRP's) dealing with the application of the
1 3 7Cs technique in soil erosion and sedimentation studies respective ly. A join Meeting of both CRP's was organised by the
Land and Water Conservation Group of the Institute of Earth Sciences "Jaume Almera", CSIC, in Barcelona, Spain, from
4 to 8 October 1999. This Special Issue of Acta Geologica Hispanica contains a compilation of selected papers presented
at this eve n t .
AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S
First of all, we have to acknowledge to the IAEA the offer to organise the Meeting and to the Spanish Consejo
Superior de Inve s t i gaciones Científ icas (CSIC) for the financial support provided. Some activities were organised in
196
the framework of the Progesed project (HID97-0581) of the Spanish Commission for Science and Te c h n o l og y
(CICYT). Special thanks should go to Anna Coll from the Institut de Tècniques Energètiques of Universitat Po l i t è c-
nica de Catalunya, to Prof. Giovanni Pardini from the University of Girona and to the colleagues at the Institute, Dr.
Francesc Gallart and Jerôme Latron, who collaborated in the organisation of the f ield-trip. We wish to thank all wh o
refereed manuscripts for this Special Issue, and to the Editorial Committee of Acta Geologica Hispanica. Fi n a l ly, we
want to express our gratitude to eve ryone who contributed in some way to the success of this meeting and to Mother
Nature, who cooperated magnifi c e n t ly with us.
Ignasi Quera l t
Felipe Zapata
E d mundo Garc í a - A g u d o


Assessment of soil erosion and sedimentation through the use of the 137Cs and related techniques

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