Life Sciences Commons^™

Flow Pathways And Sediment Trapping In A Field-Scale Vegetative Filter, Matthew J. Helmers, Dean E. Eisenhauer, Mike Dosskey, Thomas G. Franti, Jason M. Brothers, Mary Carla Mccullough

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Vegetative filters (VF) are a best management practice installed in many areas to control sediment movement to water bodies. It is commonly assumed that runoff proceeds perpendicularly across a VF as sheet flow. However, there is little research information on natural pathways of water movement and performance of field-scale VF. The objectives of this study were: (1) to quantify the performance of a VF where the flow path is not controlled by artificial borders and flow path lengths are field-scale, and (2) to develop methods to detect and quantify overland flow convergence and divergence in a VF. Our hypothesis is …