Stefano Crema*°, Lorenzo Marchi°, Marco Cavalli°, 2018, SedInConnect: a free tool for a usable sediment connectivity index, TERRAENVISION 2018, Barcelona (Spain), 29/01-01/02/2018,
URL: http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/388865

Sediment connectivity characterizes the degree of linkage that controls sediment fluxes, in particular between sediment sources and downstream target areas. The assessment of sediment connectivity turns into a key issue when dealing with risk mitigation and landscape intervention priorities. The prevailing process that characterizes a catchment is also of great importance in relation to risk assessment, with the aim of optimization of operational and non-structural intervention procedures. In the present work, the authors present the freely available SedInConnect application, an open-source tool for the assessment of sediment connectivity. SedInConnect computes sediment connectivity index as expressed in Cavalli et al. (2013), with user-selectable ad-hoc options. Sediment connectivity analysis has been carried out for several catchments in the alpine environment with the goal of having a fast and objective characterization of the catchment morphodynamics. The index of connectivity has proved to be a valuable indicator of the dominant process characterizing the basin dynamic (debris flow, bedload, mixed behavior). Furthermore, the comparison with other morphometric indexes commonly used to characterize catchment activity confirmed this hypothesis. The application of the connectivity index has therefore permitted not only to characterize the catchment dominant process, but also to depict the connectivity variability inside each basin. Spatial variability is part of the outcomes of the analysis and temporal variability can be included modeling different scenarios, thus having a precious tool for research and land management purposes.

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