Predicting erosion at valley fills with two reclamation techniques in mountainous terrain

ABSTRACTMinimising erosion resulting from mining is important to improve of reclamation and management. Geomorphic landform design (GLD) is a reclamation technique that attempts to replicate a long-term erosionally stable condition. Erosion was evaluated using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) comparing two reclamation scenarios (conventional and GLD) to the undisturbed condition. Soil loss rates were highest during the post-mining, pre-vegetation condition (conventional: 123.2 t ha−1 yr−1; GLD: 204.3 t ha−1 yr−1). Long-term erosion rates showed little difference between valley fills reclaimed with GLD and conventional methods; however, erosion was concentrated along the conventional fill face and distributed over the GLD landform.