Managing sediment (dis)connectivity in fluvial systems.

Globally, rivers systems are under considerable and increasing threat from multiple anthropogenic stresses, including different types of direct (e.g. channel engineering) and indirect human impacts (e.

Climate and land use change effects on soil erosion in two small agricultural catchment systems Fugnitz - Austria, Can Revull - Spain.

Soil erosion represents one of the most important processes of land degradation in the world and is considered a serious threat to the provision of food supply, to human health and to terrestrial ecosystems. In Europe, soil erosion by water and tillage is responsible for the loss of fertile topsoil and therefore productive land. Under Global Change scenarios climate and land use are expected to impact soil loss and sediment discharge rates distinctly in contrasting climatic regions, further influenced by tillage practices.

The way forward: Can connectivity be useful to design better measuring and modelling schemes for water and sediment dynamics?

For many years, scientists have tried to understand, describe and quantify water and sediment fluxes, with associated substances like pollutants, at multiple scales. In the past two decades, a new concept called connectivity has been used by Earth Scientists as a means to describe and quantify the influences on the fluxes of water and sediment on different scales: aggregate, pedon, location on the slope, slope, watershed, and basin. A better understanding of connectivity can enhance our comprehension of landscape processes and provide a basis for the development of better measurement and modelling approaches, further leading to a better potential for implementing this concept as a management tool.

Analysis of lateral sediment connectivity and its connection to debris flow intensity patterns at different return periods in the Fella River system in northeastern Italy.

A wide variety of issues are now being addressed using the concept of connectivity, which has initiated the development of various methods to assess a river's relationship to its catchment. This study tests two well-established methods, the Effective Catchment Area (ECA) and the Index of Connectivity (IC) in the study area of the Fella River in northeastern Italy, to gain an idea of their potentials, limitations and ability to represent connectivity patterns observable in the field. The results show that both methods provide largely agreeing outputs, which widely match field observations.

Connectivity and complex systems: learning from a multi-disciplinary perspective.

In recent years, parallel developments in disparate disciplines have focused on what has come to be termed ; a concept used in understanding and describing complex systems. Conceptualisations and operationalisations of connectivity have evolved largely within their disciplinary boundaries, yet similarities in this concept and its application among disciplines are evident. However, any implementation of the concept of connectivity carries with it both ontological and epistemological constraints, which leads us to ask if there is one type or set of approach(es) to connectivity that might be applied to all disciplines.