A quantitative study of sediment delivery and stream pollution from different forest road types

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to quantify, and enable the prediction of, sediment delivery and water pollution impacts from a spectrum of forest roads. Ten 100-200 m long sections of forest road were selected to incorporate a wide range of the key physical site factors that are likely to affect the rate of sediment generation. Each road section was permanently instrumented for 1 year to measure rainfall and runoff continuously. Suspended load, bedload, and traffic were integrated measurements over 2- to 3-week site-service intervals. Total annual sediment load (normalized for slope) varied about 25-fold, from 216 mg m-2 per millimetre of rain for a high-quality gravel surfaced road with min..