Sediment processes in wheel ruts on unsurfaced forest roads

Foltz, R.B. 1991. Sediment processes in wheel ruts on unsurfaced forest roads. Moscow, ID: University of Idaho. 177 p. Ph.D. thesis.

Keywords: sediment modeling; road erosion; wheel ruts; erosion processes; road

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Abstract: This study was undertaken to measure sediment production from bounded forest road plots using simulated rainfall. Runoff and sediment were collected from two paired plots exposed to simulated rainfall. One plot contained a wheel rut while the other one did not. These two different plots were used to determine the effects of shallow concentrated flow on the amount of sediment produced. Sediment production rates from these plots on native surfaced roads are presented. The mean soil diameter ranged from 0.80 mm to 0.05 mm. Sediment rates on the rutted plots with concentrated flow ranged from 1300 kg/ha/mm to 300 kg/ha/mm for the 30-minute, 50-mm/hr intensity. Rates on the freshly graded plots without ruts ranged from 700 kg/ha/mm to 100 kg/ha/mm. A process based model of sediment armoring, believed to be a major process occurring on unpaved forest roads, was developed and tested using the information collected from eight sites over a period of three years.

Moscow FSL publication no. 1991g