Sedimentology-Morphology, Radarstratigraphy Rio Palancia

Research team

Financial support

This research project including 2 PhD positions is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

Project affiliation: IGBP - PAGES LUCIFS initiative

Motivation and Objectives

The current status of Mediterranean environments is like a palimpsest that is inherited from a continuous history of past environmental changes. In an exemplary manner, the environmental history of the Palancia catchment is characterized by severe impacts of human activities for 5000 years.

So far, a wealth of research about soil degradation, and sediment fluxes from slopes to streams and to the coastal zone has been dedicated to the qualitative effects of human activities in Mediterranean catchments.

However, data on the quantitative significance of human impact over time are still quite rare. There is also a need for studies that couple hinterland with coastal sediment flux and that put the long-term processes of man-induced landscape change into a wider context at the whole-catchment scale.

Approach and methods

In order to gain new insights into quantities and timing of fluxes, long-term geomorphic effects, and non-linear and resilience system properties, our working goals focus on:

Developing GIS-based sediment budgets for Holocene sediment production, transfer, and output (including coastal delta formation);

Photogrammetry and field-based retrieval of quantified data about types, morphology, sedimentology, spatial distribution, and geometry of sinks in the Rio Palancia system;

Development of a radar facies catalogue and a project-derived radarstratigraphy: application of GPR and geoelectrical measurements in large-scale Earth surface studies; in particular, investigation of controls of electromagnetic wave propagation in sediments (comparative measurements of conductivity and dielectric constant);

Geochronological framework specifying formation, residence time, and degradation of relevant sediment budget components;

Evaluating river system sensitivity against the background of climate and land use change.