Bedload governs riverbed channel variations and morphology, it is necessary to determine bedload discharge through an arbitrary cross section in a mountain river. A new system with submerged load cells has been developed to directly measure bedload discharge. The system consists of: (1) an iron box which is 1 m long, 0.5 m wide and 0.1 m in depth, (2) two submerged load cells 0.7 m apart, (3) a pressure sensor and, (4) an electromagnetic velocity meter. This system has been designed to exclude the effect of the hydraulic pressure of water on direct measurements of bedload particle weight. Initial tests in a laboratory were conducted to examine the accuracy of measurements with the system under aerial conditions. The system has been installed in the supercritical flume in Ashi-arai-dani River of the Hodaka Sedimentation Observatory of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) of Kyoto University to obtain bedload discharge under natural conditions. Flume tests were conducted in this channel by artificial supply of uniform sediment particles of several grain sizes. The average velocity of the sediment particles near the bed was estimated using cross-correlation functions for weight waves obtained by the two load cells. Bedload discharge calculations were based on time integration of the product of sediment velocity and sediment weight obtained by the two load cells. This study clarifies the reasons why bedload measurements are difficult, and provides some solutions using the monitoring systems with submerged load cells through the field measurements. Additionally, the applicability of bedload measurement with the submerged load cells is explained based on experimental artificial sediment supply data.

Debris flows form deposits when they reach an alluvial fan until they eventually stop. However, houses located in the alluvial fan might affect the debris flow flooding and deposition processes. Few previous studies have considered the effects of houses on debris flow flooding and deposition. This study conducted model experiments and numerical simulations using the Kanako2D debris flow simulator to determine the influence of houses on debris flow flooding and deposition. The model experiments showed that when houses are present, the debris flow spreads widely in the cross direction immediately upstream of the houses, especially when the flow discharge is large or the grain size is small. Houses located in the alluvial fan also influence the deposition area. The presence of houses led to flooding and deposition damage in some places and reduced the damage in others. The simulation also demonstrated the influence of houses. Both the model experiment and the simulation showed that houses change the flooding and deposition areas.

Understanding a discharge hydrograph is one of the leading interests in catchment hydrology. Recent research has provided credible information on the importance of bedrock groundwater on discharge hydrographs from headwater catchments. However, intensive monitoring of bedrock groundwater is rare in mountains with steep topography. Hence, how bedrock groundwater controls discharge from a steep headwater catchment is in dispute. In this study, we conducted long-term hydrological observations using densely located bedrock wells in a headwater catchment underlain by granitic bedrock. The catchment has steep topography affected by diastrophic activities. Results showed a fairly regionalized distribution of bedrock aquifers within a scale of tens of meters, consisting of upper, middle, and lower aquifers, instead of a gradual and continuous decline in water level from ridge to valley bottom. This was presumably attributable to the unique bedrock structure; fault lines developed in the watershed worked to form divides between the bedrock aquifers. Spatial expanse of each aquifer and the interaction among aquifers were key factors to explain gentle and considerable variations in the base flow discharge and triple-peak discharge responses of the observed hydrograph. A simple model was developed to simulate the discharge hydrograph, which computed each of the contributions from the soil mantle groundwater, from the lower aquifer, and from the middle aquifer to the discharge. The modeling results generally succeeded in reproducing the observed hydrograph. Thus, this study demonstrated that understanding regionalized bedrock aquifer distribution is pivotal for explaining discharge hydrograph from headwater catchments that have been affected by diastrophic activities.

Precipitation in a forest is intercepted by the canopy and partitioned into throughfall and stemflow, leading to heterogeneous water inputs that affect soil water dynamics. To clarify the effects of a tree stand on rainfall infiltration processes on a steep forested hillslope, we conducted detailed observations of throughfall, stemflow, soil water content, and pore water pressure at high spatial resolution for many storm events. The results showed that the soil water content increased rapidly and greatly in the region downslope from the tree stem, especially at points close to the tree stem. At these points, maximal soil water storage was > 100 to 200% of the cumulative open-area rainfall, and occurrences of bypass flow were recognized. Moreover, the pore water pressure at the soil-bedrock interface increased more rapidly and to a greater degree in the region downslope from the tree stem than in the upslope region. For a heavy storm event, the cumulative stemflow per infiltration area along the downslope sides of the tree trunk was 18.9 times the cumulative open-area rainfall. Locally concentrated rainwater input attributable to the stemflow on the downslope side of the tree trunk probably caused the large and rapid increases in water content and pore water pressure in the downslope region, resulting in the development of an asymmetric saturated zone around the tree.

Information on spatial distributions of soil water content and mechanical strength is fundamental to hydrogeomorpho-logical studies in mountainous watersheds. For simultaneous measurements of soil water content, theta, and penetration resistance, N(c), of soil mantles on natural hillslopes, we developed a new type of combined penetrometer-moisture probe (CPMP). The new CPMP has a robust configuration to reduce the frequency of moisture probe breakdowns during penetration into gravelly and rocky natural soils, and it has a penetration depth of up to 552 cm, which is about four to 14times greater than the maximum measurable depth of any previous CPMP developed for agricultural soils. Laboratory calibrations and field validations showed that the CPMP succeeded in producing vertical distributions for theta and N(c) similar to those measured with conventional methods. The CPMP provided less time-consuming and less destructive measurements of theta profiles than conventional methods that require excavation of deep trenches. Because theta profiles consider the stratified characteristics of soil mantles as well as the depths of groundwater tables, the CPMP was more effective than the conventional cone penetrometer for surveying the hydrogeomorphological structure of soil mantles. The CPMP was successful in determining the spatial distributions of theta and N(c) in a headwater basin underlain by weathered granitic bedrock. From a direct comparison between two. and N(c) values measured on two different days at nearby points and the same depth, it was shown that N(c) tended to decrease when theta increased by more than 0.15.

The characteristics of stemflow were observed in a tall stewartia (Stewartia monadelpha) deciduous forest on a hillslope in central Japan, revealing new findings for a previously unreported type of deciduous forest. Using 2-year observations of 250 rainfall events, we analyzed seasonal and spatial variations in stemflow for several trees, and applied additional data sets of throughfall and plant area index (PAI) to produce a rough estimate of seasonal variations in rainfall redistribution processes and canopy architecture for a single tree. Compared to previous findings for other deciduous tree species, the ratios of throughfall, stemflow, and interception to open-area rainfall obviously varied with PAI changes for tall stewartia. Meteorological conditions of rainfall amount, rainfall intensity, wind speed, and wind direction had little effect on stemflow generation, which was mainly affected by variation in canopy architecture. Three novel characteristics of stemflow were identified for several tall stewartia trees. First, the yearly stemflow ratio at the forest-stand level for tall stewartia (12%) was high compared to previous findings on beech and oak stands, indicating tall stewartia has considerably high potential to generate a great amount of stemflow. Second, stemflow tended to be 1.3-2.0 times greater in the leafed period than in the leafless period. Third, the amount of stemflow was 12-132 times greater on the downslope side of the stem than on the upslope side. It likely caused by the uneven area between the upslope and downslope sides of the canopy and by asymmetrical stemflow pathways between the upslope and downslope sides of the trunk due to downslope tilting of the tree trunk. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The usefulness of electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) as a highly accurate method for determining the soil thickness distribution on hillslopes was validated by combining intensive measurements using invasive methods, i.e., cone penetration testing and boreholes, with ERI in three granitic watersheds. Areas of high electrical resistivity (rho) contrast reflecting soil-bedrock interfaces were found in all three study watersheds. However, rho values of soil and weathered granite just below the soil mantle varied over a relatively wide range at each site, as well as considerably from site to site. The patterns of low-high contrast in rho profiles, reflecting the soil-bedrock interface, also differed from site to site despite similarly dry conditions. Differences in the water retention characteristics of soil and weathered granitic bedrock, as found by a previous study of bedrock hydrological properties, may have been a major factor in the observed subsurface rho variations. The ERI method, with electrode spacing of 0.5 to 2.0 m, was successful in determining soil thickness distributions ranging from about 0.5 to 3 m depth based on its ability to detect high contrast in rho in the subsurface zone. Closer electrode spacings are expected to more sensitively reveal the distribution of ground material properties and thus more accurately replicate the soil-bedrock interface. ERI failed to clearly identify the soil-bedrock interface at some points along our measurement lines because of local intermediate materials with different properties such as unconsolidated soil and clayey intermediation just below the soil-bedrock interface. Two types of seismic survey (SS) techniques were also used, combining seismic refraction (SR) and the surface wave method (SWM) with the ERI method in a granitic watershed to compare ERI with other geophysical methods. The profile of S-wave velocity (V-s) by SWM also reasonably duplicated the soil-bedrock interface; the V-s profile showed larger variation in lateral direction and corresponded to the soil thickness distribution better than the P-wave velocity (V-p) profile by SR. The combined use of ERI and SWM may be more effective in detecting the soil-bedrock interface because each method compensates for the deficiencies of the other method. 0 2011 Elsevier By. All rights reserved.

A tree can partition rainfall into throughfall and stemflow (SF), causing water to be funneled around the tree base, and can preferentially divert rainwater in soil layers, causing water to be funneled around tree roots. To determine the effects of each on soil water dynamics, we compared soil water dynamics around a tree on a hillslope on the basis of 2 years of field observations before (SF period) and after (non-SF period) intercepting the stemflow of the tree. Additionally, two sprinkling experiments were conducted using different dye tracers to separately indentify infiltration pathways derived from throughfall and stemflow. The observation results in the SF period showed irregular variations in soil water content, high soil water storage, and significant saturated zone development in the downslope region from the tree, which were attributed to stemflow concentrated on the downslope side of the tree. Although dramatic variations in soil water dynamics disappeared in the non-SF period, asymmetrical soil water response patterns were also observed, which were mainly attributed to root-induced bypass flow. Focusing on the downslope region in the SF and non-SF periods, the frequency of saturated zone generation at the soil-bedrock interface decreased from 58% to 16%, but the frequency of bypass flow occurrence varied little. Saturated zone generation at the soil-bedrock interface underneath the tree in both the SF and non-SF periods suggests that trees are key locations for rainfall infiltration and that tree-induced saturated zone generation should be considered carefully, even in conditions without stemflow supply.

It is important to evaluate bedload discharge and temporal changes of the bed surface, and bed deformation can be estimated during floods if the bedload discharge is properly evaluated in an arbitrary cross-section. With the exception of grain size and its distribution within the bedload, bedload discharge has been measured using both direct and indirect methods. Bedload slot is a direct method but cannot be used to measure bedload during a flood because of volume limitations. Indirect methods require correlation between the signals and sediment volume measured using another method. In the present study, a small, automatically recording bedload sensor with an iron plate and a pair of load cells is developed in order to evaluate not only large particles but also sand particles as bedload. Bedload mass is calculated by integrating with respect to both the velocity of sediment particles and the averaged particle weight as measured by a pair of load cells, and, as an example, the velocity is estimated by the cross-correlation function of weights measured by load cells. The applicability of the proposed sensor is discussed based on the results of flume tests in the laboratory (2014) and the observation flume of the Hodaka Sedimentation Observatory of Kyoto University in Japan (2015). The system was installed in the observation flume in November of 2012, and flume data were obtained using natural sediment particles. In particular, it was difficult to estimate the velocity of averaged bedload particles, and it was better to apply a cross-correlation function in the laboratory tests. However, it appears that the previous estimation can estimate these velocities in the observation flume using a connecting tube and submerged load-cell systems. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) as an effective method to evaluate water flow processes through bedrock in a hillslope in a headwater catchment was validated by invasive hydrometric observations. Distributions of increases and decreases in electrical resistivities rho relative to a reference rho profile (Delta rho) corresponded well with the increases and decreases in volumetric water content theta (Delta theta) calculated from the directly observed pressure head psi using tensiometers and borehole wells. This demonstrates the applicability of time-lapse ERI measurement for qualitatively evaluating the spatial and temporal variations in theta (i.e., wetting and drying processes) for not only soil mantles but also for bedrock in a natural hillslope. There was a reasonable correlation (R-2 = 0.69 to 0.77) between each average theta and rho in regions assumed to have different degrees of weathering, indicating the potential of ERI for quantitatively evaluating moisture conditions within an en tire natural hillslope, including bedrock, based on field-scale calibrations with invasive methods. Fluctuations in groundwater tables in boreholes within bedrock along the survey line and discharge from two differently sized catchments including the study slope were both successfully reflected in the temporal variation in mean rho in the regions located just above and below the groundwater tables. This indicates the potential of ERI for estimating groundwater levels and runoff from a watershed based on temporal rho monitoring within an en tire slope, including the bedrock; such estimations may be more difficult to achieve with invasive methods in many mountain slopes.

There are two kinds of Sabo dams in order to control sediment transport by debris flow and flash floods in mountainous area, which are closed and open-type's dams. In Japan, open-type's Sabo dams are constructed taking into account the continuity of sediment routing from upstream to downstream reach in a basin. A plan to construct a 20 m high grid-type Sabo dam which can capture a sediment volume of 400,000 m(3) is proposed in the Amahata river basin in Japan. Hydraulic model tests are conducted to decide on the section for a dam (Section A, B) and the grid size such as clearance of vertical/horizontal bars for evaluating the plan. Several runs of flume tests are conducted and the sediment control function of the Sabo dam is discussed using several experimental data such as dimensionless sediment runoff rate from Sabo dam, temporal changes of bed profile and mean diameter and so on. It was found that sediment deposition in sediment storage area of Sabo dam was affected by curved channel, and that next the grid size of steel bars and thirdly the section of a dam was able to capture sediment in storage area of Sabo dam. Sediment was controlled well in the section B and in the grid size of 1.0xd(95), and the problems related to sediment runoff after sediment capturing in Sabo dam are pointed out.